A new analysis from the Wyoming Energy Authority finds that building a new coal-fired power plant with integrated carbon capture and storage would cost over $10 billion for a 1.6 GW facility in West Virginia and over $8 billion for a 1.25 GW plant in Alaska. That is roughly double the cost of a natural gas plant with CCS and about four times the cost of utility-scale solar. Only new nuclear is more expensive. The Trump administration has committed roughly $700 million in federal funds toward these projects, but the money is for feasibility studies, not construction. Neither plant has secured permits, power purchase agreements, or committed private financing. The Alaska site is 70 miles from the nearest transmission line and lacks a coal mine to supply it. The analysis from the Wyoming Energy Authority underscores a harsh reality for coal with carbon capture. The technology has a poor track record: about 70 percent of announced CCS projects have not materialized, and the failure rate in the electricity sector exceeds 98 percent. The Petra Nova retrofit in Texas reduced emissions by only about 11 percent over its life, far below design. Capturing CO2 from coal requires burning 14 to 40 percent more coal per unit of electricity, increasing mining and transport. Meanwhile, the DOE has issued over 20 emergency orders since May 2025 to keep aging coal plants running, costing ratepayers at least $300 million so far. The forced outage rate for coal rose to 14.1 percent in 2025, higher than nuclear or gas. The article makes a strong case that new coal with CCS is economically unviable compared to solar, wind, and gas, and that the existing fleet is increasingly unreliable and expensive to keep online.
