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Natural gas, wind, nuclear, bio-mass, and solar will replace some coal fired generation in the intermediate future. However, the transition will not be overnight. The notion that the country can shut down all of its coal power plants immediately and find alternative sources of power is unrealistic. Shuttering coals fired plants and finding reasonable alternatives is a time consuming and expensive process. Those who say that wind and solar can take up the slack are overlooking the fact that there is no practicable way to store electric energy and, furthermore, the wind does not always blow and the sun does not always shine. As of the end of 2013, Texas had 83 generation stations that were under the direction of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).  Natural gas had 56.4 per cent of installed capacity, followd by coal at 22.9 per cent, wind at 13.4 per cent, nuclear at 6.2 per cent, with hydro, bio-mass and solar accounting for the remainder. In 2013, according to ERCOT, natural gas generated 40 per cent of the electric power in Texas, followed by coal at 37.2 per cent, wind at 13.4 per cent, and nuclear at 11.6 per cent.   When I went to work for a major power generating company in 1976, coal was used to generate more than 48 per cent of electric power produced by our company, which was the largest generating company in Texas. For a variety of reasons, the percentage of power generated by coal has declined significantly, especially during the past decade, and it is projected to decline even further in the coming years.    As noted in another post, coal accounts for 20 per cent of the volumes and 27 per cent of the revenues for CSX.  As the amount of coal used to generate electric energy declines, it will have a definite impact on the country's freight railroads, especially those that move high volumes of coal.
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