US coal generation, 2001 to 2025
US coal generation stood at 737,151 in 2025, up 13.0% on the previous period.
Electricity generated from coal in the United States, in gigawatt hours per year, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The series counts net generation from utility-scale plants of one megawatt and larger across all sectors. It is collected on Form EIA-923, the survey behind the Electric Power Monthly, and reported as thousands of megawatt hours; the chart shows gigawatt hours.
Coal generation peaked at 2,016,456 gigawatt hours in 2007. Sustained low natural gas prices after the shale boom, then cheap wind and solar, made coal plants progressively uneconomical to run, and retirements compounded the slide: by 2024 output had fallen to 652,156 gigawatt hours, roughly a third of the peak. The 2025 reading of 737,151 rose from that low, but the series remains about 63 percent below where it stood two decades ago.
Why did coal generation fall?
Is coal recovering?
Is this capacity or actual generation?
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