The Great Reactivation of Coal. The Powers Know What They're Doing

• US President Donald Trump wants coal to be the source of electricity for rapidly expanding AI data centers.
• Donald Trump has made global US dominance in artificial intelligence one of his administration's priorities, citing the technology and its energy needs as a national security issue.
• The coal industry is seen as an important element in meeting growing energy needs.

Recently, during a Cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump announced that U.S. energy demand could triple in the coming years to meet the growth of artificial intelligence.

Energy issues have also become a battleground in the race for AI dominance

Trump used the development of AI infrastructure at Meta as a case study showing how energy issues have also become a battleground in the race for AI dominance.

"If we took into account all the electricity we currently produce in this country, we would have to multiply it by two, maybe three, to make it work," Trump said.

In December 2024, Meta announced that it had selected a site in Louisiana for a major artificial intelligence center.

Meta's Louisiana facility would be one of the largest single-user data centers ever built in the US. Meta plans to invest heavily in AI data centers across the US. The tech giant's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, admitted that only one of them would be comparable in size to Manhattan. This is part of its strategy to develop superintelligence.

China is also investing heavily in data centers. It's rapidly developing renewable energy sources and constantly adding new coal-fired capacity . And if demand for artificial intelligence in China grows so rapidly that renewable energy projects can't keep pace, coal-fired power plants will do the trick.

Coal-fired power plants are not dependent on changing weather conditions.

Coal-fired power plants are not dependent on changing weather conditions. At a time when there's constant talk of the need for increasingly widespread electrification, maintaining a coal-fired fleet is a necessity.

Recently, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) published a half-yearly review of China's coal projects for the first half of 2025.

The report shows that coal-fired generating capacity continues to grow. In the first half of 2025, 21 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power was commissioned, the highest first-half figure since 2016. The full-year forecast exceeds 80 GW.

This increase in project completions follows a sharp increase in coal-fired power plant construction permits in 2022 and 2023, with an average of two new coal-fired power plant construction permits issued per week, totaling over 100 GW of approved capacity per year. This trend is likely to continue in 2026 and 2027.

Under Donald Trump's leadership, coal has also seen a resurgence in the United States.

President Trump has repeatedly pointed to the construction of coal-fired power plants in China as evidence of how seriously the Chinese market is taking the issue of the huge energy demand from artificial intelligence.

Under Donald Trump's leadership, coal has also seen a resurgence in the United States. Coal is a stable energy resource in the US because it occurs in ideal geological conditions.

Coal is considered by many to be a fuel of the past, but its global consumption has doubled in the last three decades. The world is consuming far more coal than previously expected.

The increased use of artificial intelligence and the growing fleet of data centers could lead to changes in energy demand . Renewable energy sources alone will not be able to meet this rapidly growing demand for electricity. Coal could also play a significant role in this regard.