About 138 million tons of coal – a year’s production in Appalachia – is sitting in stockpiles at power plants across the country.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts those stockpiles will remain high in 2025.
It’s because coal has a hard time competing with natural gas to generate electricity and because wind, solar and battery storage are also eating into its market share.
Power plants received less than half the coal this year that they did in 2008.
Wind and solar are expected to surpass coal this year for the first time.
This is expected to have an impact on production. The energy agency forecasts U.S. coal production will fall below 500 million tons next year.