President Donald Trump He wants to revive the fighting coal industry in the USA, implementing plants for supplying data centers that are built by large technology companies to train artificial intelligence.
Trump published executive order In April, he directed his office to find US areas, in which coal -powered infrastructure is available to support AI data centers and whether the infrastructure can be extended to meet the growing demand for electricity from the country's technology sector.
Trump has repeatedly promoted coal as a power source of data centers. The president said the World Economic Forum in January that he would approve power plants for AI through an emergency declaration, calling for technology companies to use coal as a spare power source.
“They can drive everything they want and can have coal as support – good, pure coal,” said the president.
Inventing Trump to implement coal at the forefront of environmental goals of technology companies. In a short period, the needs of industry power may unintentionally prolong the lives of existing coal plants.
Carbon produces greater carbon dioxide emissions per kilowatt hour of power than any other energy source in the USA, except for oil, in accordance with Energy information administration. The technology industry has invested billions of dollars in the extension of renewable energy and is increasingly turning to nuclear energy as a way to satisfy the growing demand for electricity, while trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which drives climate change.
For coal miners, Trump Pushing is a potential lifestyle. The industry was falling because coal plants are withdrawn in the United States about 16% of us Electricity production comes from burning coal in 2023, compared to 51% in 2001, According to EIA data.
Peabody Energy General Director James Grech, who participated in the Trump's Order ceremony in the White House, said that “carbon plants can take a greater lot of satisfying the requirements of generating the US, including many years of growth of data centers.” Peabody is One of the largest coal producers in the USA
Grech said that coal plants should increase how much energy they send. The national coal fleet currently sends about 42% of its maximum capacity, compared to the historical average 72%, said the general director of analysts in telephones with earnings of May 6.
“We believe that all coal-powered generators must postpone pensions in coal plants when the situation on Earth has changed clearly,” Grech said. “We believe that generators should not relieve coal plants that have recently been launched.”
Technology sector reaction
In the technology industry there is a growing confirmation that you will need the production of fossil fuels to help satisfy the demand for electricity from artificial intelligence. But according to EIA, it focuses on natural gas, which emits less half of the CO2 coal per kilowatoga hour of power.
“To have the energy we need for the network, this will benefit from the above approach for some time,” said Kevin Miller, Amazon vice president for global data centers last month, during a discussion at the conference of technology and oil and gas directors in Oklahoma City.
“We are not surprised by the fact that we will have to add a bit of thermal production to meet the needs in a short period,” said Miller.
Nat Sahlstrom, energy director in tract, thermal generation is a code word for gas that protects land resources, infrastructure and energy resources for data centers. Sahlstrom previously led the teams of energy, water and sustainable development of Amazon.
Management in AmazonIN Nvidia And Anthropic would not commit to use coal, mainly avoiding a question when he would ask during a panel at a conference in Oklahoma City.
“This is never a simple answer,” said Miller Amazon. “It is a combination of where energy is available, what are other alternatives.”
Nvidia Josh Parker, senior director of sustainable corporate development of the company, is able to be an agnostic, what kind of power is used because of the position of the chipmaker in the AI chain. “Fortunately, we leave most of these decisions to our clients.”
Anthropic co -founder, Jack Clark, said that a wider set of options is available than just coal. “We would certainly consider it, but I don't know if I would say that he is at the top of our list.”
Sahlstrom said that Trump's management seems to be a “dog whistle” for coal mining ingredients. There is a big difference between checking the existing infrastructure and “the actual building of new power plants that are competitive and will exist in 30 to 40 years,” said the executive director.
Sahlstrom said that coal is replaced by renewable energy sources, natural gas and existing nuclear plants, because carbon plants face more and more difficult economics. “Coal was not without work,” he said.
“I do not see that the Hypercale community comes out and sign long -term obligations regarding new carbon plants,” said former director of Amazon. (Technology companies developing AI are often referred to as “hyperscar”).
“I would be shocked if I saw something like that,” said Sahlstrom.
Coal deformation mesh
But the pensions of coal power plants create real Challenge for the grid As the demand for electricity increases due to data centers, re -industrialization and wider electrification of the economy.
The largest net in the country, the connection of PJM, has a forecast Electricity demand may increase 40% until 2039, PJM warned in 2023 that 40 gigawatts of existing energy production, mainly coal, is threatened by retirement until 2030.which accounts for about 21% of the installed PJM capacity.
Data centers will temporarily extend the demand of coal, because the tools are trying to maintain the reliability of the network, delaying their decarbonization goals, according to Moody's report from October last year. According to the National Mining Association data, public utility tools have already postponed the pension of carbon plants with a total value of about 39 gigawats of power.
“If we want to develop American electricity production over the next five or ten years, (we have) we must stop closing coal plants,” said energy secretary Chris Wright, said CNBC, “Marshmallow“Last month.
Sahlstrom said, however, that natural gas and renewable energy sources are the future. Sahlstrom said that about 60% reduction of energy sector emissions over the past 20 years is caused by gas displacement, and the rest comes from renewable energy sources.
“This is a pretty powerful combination and it is difficult for me to see how people go back, putting more coal in a mixture, especially if you are a Hyerscale client who has a zero-carbon net purposes,” he said.