Natural gas is expected to soon surpass coal as a source of CO2. As natural gas continues to replace coal as a fuel for the production of electricity for the nation’s electric grids, the total amount of emissions coming from natural gas activity will pass that of coal in 2016.
Energy related CO2 emissions from natural gas are expected to exceed that of coal by 10% in 2016. The total amount of electricity generated by natural gas reached record highs in the U.S. in July of 2016. The nearly 5,000 gigawatts per day surpassed the previous record in 2015 by around 9%. This was due partially to high temperatures as well as the continuing price advantage of natural gas over coal. For the year, electricity from natural gas is expected to account for around 34% of power output compared to 30% for coal.
As ever tightening federal mandates force coal plants to either modernize or shut down, coal based electricity output has been in a multi-year down trend in the US. This is expected to continue in the years to come. Much of this lost production has been replaced by renewable sources of power such as solar and wind. The latter is particularly the case in Texas.
This all comes on top of another trend that has seen overall electricity sales declining thanks in part to greater energy efficiency in residential construction as well as federal energy efficiency mandates. Lower peaks in electricity demand tend to favor cleaner sources of power. Coal and natural gas are considered more responsive sources of power generation and more likely to be ramped up in times of greater peak demand.
Electricity Rates
The gradual shift of electricity production away from coal and toward natural gas and renewable sources of power has not put upward pressure on electricity rates. The national average for electricity for July 2016 was 13.0 cents per kwh. By comparison, a 12 month electricity plan can be found for 6.3 cents per kwh in the Dallas, Texas area as of the time of this writing.
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