evidence: As in past years, IEEFA expects the list of announced coal unit closures to continue to grow, shortening the list of the remaining units. The closure of the coal-fired units means a permanent shift in the mix of fuels used to power the U.S. electrical grid, since no new coal plants are being built to replace them. In 2011, when the peak of U.S. coal-fired generation capacity of 317.6GW was reached, coal was easily the most important fuel for the electric sector, responsible for 44% of the power produced. But a boom in gas plants—largely using inexpensive gas from fracking—and the rapid growth in wind and utility-scale solar facilities has put an end to coal’s supremacy. By the end of 2022, U.S. coal-fired capacity fell below 200 GW, a 38% decline. Power production has fallen even faster: In 2022, coal produced only 20% of the sector’s electricity, less than half its market share a decade ago. Already this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects coal’s market share to fall to 17%, and with another 80GW closing by 2030, IEEFA estimates that there is a strong possibility that coal’s power-market share will fall to 10% or lower.