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President Donald Trump He wants to revive the coal industry in the United States by deploying plants to feed data centers that large technology companies build artificial intelligence.
Trump issued Executive order In April, he ordered his cabinet to find areas of the United States, where coal infrastructure is available to support AI data centers and determining whether it is possible to expand the infrastructure to meet growing electricity in the country’s technology sector.
Trump has repeatedly promoted coal as a power source for data centers. In January, the president told the World Economic Forum that it would approve power plants for the II through an emergency declaration, urging technology companies to use coal as a reserve power source.
“They can nourish everything they want, and they can have coal as a backup – good, clean coal,” the President said.
Pressing Trump to deploy coal operates from the environmental goals of technology companies. In the short term, the needs of the industry can accidentally expand the life of existing coal plants.
Coal produces more carbon dioxide emissions per kilowatt -hour than any other energy source in the US, except for oil, according to Administration of energy information. The technological industry has invested billions of dollars to expand renewable energy sources and is increasingly referring to nuclear energy as a way to meet increasing demand for electricity, trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that feed climate changes.
For miners of coal, Trump’s push is a potential lifeline. Industry was in decline because coal plants resign in the USA about 16% of us generation of electricity came from burning coal in 2023, decreased with 51% in 2001, According to EIA.
PEABODY ENERGY CEO James Sin, who attended the Trump executive ceremony in the White House, said “coal plants could take over heavy load on the needs of the US generation, including many years of data centers.” PEABODY is One of the largest coal manufacturers In the US
Sin said coal plants should increase how much power they send. The company’s analysts on May 6 62% of 62% of the maximum capacity compared to the historic average of 72%, said the CEO of analysts on the company’s earnings on May 6.
“We believe that all the generators working on coal need to postpone access to the coal factory, since the situation on the ground has clearly changed,” sin said. “We believe that generators must cancel coal factories that have recently been overcome.”
The reaction of the technological sector
In the technological area, there is a growing recognition that the production of fossil fuel will be required to meet the demand for electricity from AI. But the focus is on natural gas, which emits less than half the CO2 coal per kilowatt power, EIA reports.
“In order to have the energy required for the network, this will need the entire above approach for a certain time,” said Kevin Miller, Vice -President of Amazon Global Data Centers, during a discussion at a conference on technology and oil and gas executives in the city of Oklahoma last month.
“We are not surprised that we will need to add some heat generation to meet the needs in the short term,” Miller said.
The thermal generation is a gas code for gas, said Nat Salstrom, TRACT Energy CEO, a company that secures land, infrastructure and electricity resources for data centers. Previously, Sahlstrom headed the Amazon’s energy, water and stability teams.
The executives in Amazon. Nvidia And the anthropic will not participate in the use of coal, mainly eliminating the question when asked during the panel at the Oklahoma -Siti conference.
“It’s never a simple answer,” said Miller Amazon. “This is a combination where energy is available, which are other alternatives.”
Nvidia It may be agnostic about what type of food is used with the position occupied by the AI -Value Capa. “Fortunately, we leave most of these solutions for our customers.”
Anthropic co -founder Jack Clark said there was a broader set of options than just coal. “We will definitely look at it, but I don’t know if I said it was at the top of our list.”
Salstram said Trump’s executive order seems like a “dog whistle” for coal mining. There is a big difference between the views on the existing infrastructure and “in fact the creation of new power plants that are competitive and will from now on 30 to 40 years,” the executive section said.
Salstram is blossoming with renewable energy sources, natural gas and existing nuclear plants as coal plants face an increasingly complex economy. “Coal has some work without work,” he said.
“I do not see the Hypermash community to come out and sign long -term commitments to new coal factories,” said the former Amazon Executive Director. .
“I would be shocked if I saw something like this,” said Salstram.
Retirement retirement strains network
But exit to coal plants creates a valid Call for the network As the demand for electricity increases due to data centers, re-industry and wider electrification of the economy.
The largest network in the country, the PJM relationship, predicts Demand for electricity may increase 40% by 2039. PJM warned in 2023 that 40 gigawat about existing electricity production, mainly coal, have Risks to retire by 2030which is about 21% of the PJM capacity.
Data processing centers will temporarily extend the coal demand, as utilities have been fighting the maintenance of the network, delaying the goals of the decarbonization, the Moody report since October last year. Utilities have already set aside the retirement of coal plants totaling about 39 gigawat power, according to the National Association of Mining Mining.
“If we want to make sense of electricity production in America over the next five years, we must stop the closure of coal factories,” said Energy Minister Chris Wright “CNBC” “MONEY -MUCH‘Last month.
But natural gas and renewable sources of the source source are the future, said Salstram. About 60% of the reduction of energy sector emissions over the last 20 years are associated with the displacement of gas, and the rest came from renewable energy sources, said salra.
“This is a pretty powerful combination, and it is difficult for me to see people go back, putting more coal into the mixture, especially if you are a buyer of hypermash, which has zero carbon heads,” he said.
