The coal industry is converging on Bluefield, WV for the ionic Bluefield Coal & Mining Show when around 6,000 attendees and exhibitors from all 25 coal-producing states in the Nation will gather.
The 3-day event begins tomorrow, presented by the Chamber of Commerce of the Two Virginias in partnership with Mining People and CoalZoom, and is certainly the highlight of the coal calendar this year. Andy Eidson, CEO and Director of Alpha Metallurgical Resources, will open the Show and provide the Keynote Address at the Media and Exhibitor Appreciation Breakfast at 8:30 am on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, in the food tent at Brushfork Armory and Convention Center, where the Show is held.
Andy Eidson
“We are thrilled that Mr. Eidson is able to join us and to present his views on the future of the coal industry,” said Jeff Disibbio, President & CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of the Two Virginias, which owns and produces the show “This is certainly an exciting start to our event and we look forward very much to providing an unparallelled Bluefield welcome to Andy as well as to the mining folks from all over the country, who will join us.”
Jeff Disibbio
All attendees and guests will park and be shuttled from Mitchell Stadium, 1780 Stadium Drive, Bluefield Drive, Bluefield, WV. Shuttles will run continually all day throughout the days of the Show. Directional signs are provided.
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China’s Coal Power Can Win The AI Race
By Frank Clemente and Fred Palmer; Coal is the Cornerstone LLC.
Frank Clemente
Fred Palmer
In June, Rand Corporation researchers stated: “China wants to become the global leader in Artificial Intelligence by 2030”. Given events of the past 25 years, does anyone think this is an unreasonable goal? Decades ago, the world was caught flat footed by the rapidity with which China was able to utilize coal-based electricity to jump forward. In the 2000 World Energy Outlook, the IEA projected coal generating capacity would increase from the then current 212 GW to 499 GW in 2020. By 2020, however, China’s actual coal capacity was over 1,000 GW. Similarly, in 2000, the IEA projected China’s coal generation would increase from 990 TWh to 2,600 TWh in 2020. But, by 2020, generation from coal exceeded 4,800 TWh and was well on its way toward 6,000 TWh.
China plays the long game in energy. In successive Five-Year Plans, Beijing focused on strategic investments in renewable technologies as well as the critical minerals to support them. The PRC now dominates almost every part of the renewable supply chain whether it is solar PV modules, wind turbines, or batteries, usually enjoying a market share of more than 65%. The IEA Critical Minerals Report found that “China is the dominant refiner for 19 of the 20 minerals analyzed, holding an average market share of around 70%.” Robert Bryce also documented the issue, warning China has a chokehold on about three dozen key elements in the Periodic Table, “with an average market share of around 70%”. China uses its dominance in global critical minerals supply chains for strategic ends, and just last December banned exports to the US of gallium, germanium, and antimony.
Now, China has set its sights on dominating Artificial Intelligence. As Daniel Hook, CEO at Digital Science stated: “AI is no longer neutral – governments are using it as a strategic asset, akin to energy or military capability…and China is outstripping the rest of the world in research.”
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Powering the AI Moment
Big tech’s scramble to deploy ever-larger data centers—each with the electricity needs of entire cities or states—to serve AI is rapidly transforming electricity markets and our electricity grid.
As The Wall Street Journal recently observed, utilities are receiving requests for extraordinary amounts of power: “Take American Electric Power, a big utility that serves 11 states, and Sempra’s Texas utility Oncor. Combined, they have received requests to connect projects, many of them data centers, to the grid requiring almost 400 gigawatts of electricity. That is an astronomical amount that represents more than half the peak electricity demand in the Lower 48 states on two hot days in July.”
Whether all this potential demand turns into firm commitments remains to be seen but the demand growth already locked in requires not just building new generating capacity but getting more power from the dispatchable capacity already on the grid.
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China’s Abundance Agenda
China continues to chart its own energy path, positioning the industrial giant remarkably well for the age of electrification and the voracious energy appetite of AI.
While the West was tearing down baseload generation in favor of the promise of renewable energy – leading to mounting reliability concerns and a European energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – China has pursued a policy of energy addition.
President Xi Jinping, hedging his bets against the challenges of integrating renewable energy, in 2022 laid out how China’s energy strategy would differ from the West. China, he said, would follow “the principle of building the new before discarding the old.” And build – both renewable power and coal generation – China has.
China’s abundance agenda has it both lapping the world in the deployment of renewable energy and rapidly expanding – not just maintaining – the world’s largest coal fleet.
In just the first half of this year, China added 268 gigawatts (GW) of new solar and wind power, an extraordinary amount nearly equal to all of the wind and solar the United States has ever built. By one calculation, China is installing solar at such a pace it’s equivalent to adding 100 solar panels every second.
This renewable surge is coming on the shoulders of the rapid expansion of the world’s largest coal fleet.
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Planned Coal Plant Retirements Crash into Energy Reality
Utilities are grappling with an unshakeable reality: they can’t meet soaring power demand without the existing coal capacity they have.
One after another, utilities are dropping plans to close plants or are kicking retirements far down the road. Deliberately removing dispatchable capacity from grids at the same time they are facing record breaking—and growing—electricity demands, would be an own goal that defies logic.
Just this summer, three more utilities have joined the ranks of those pumping the breaks on plant retirements.
New Mexico’s 1,500 Megawatt (MW) Four Corners coal power plant, which had been scheduled for retirement in 2031, will now operate until 2038. Arizona Public Service (APS), the majority owner of the plant, said “in short, coal is an important part of our balanced energy mix today, and we will not exit it any earlier than is in the best interests of our customers to ensure reliable service at the lowest cost possible.”
APS had committed to the early retirement of the plant just two years ago – even exploring ways to close the plant earlier than 2031 – but an unprecedented surge in demand has changed APS’ plans. APS now forecasts it will have to add 60% more generating capacity by 2038 to meet projected peak demand. Just last week, APS set a new peak demand record—the third time this summer that has happened.
The story is much the same in Kentucky where Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities announced on July 29 their plans to extend the life of the Mill Creek coal power plant, citing "record-breaking economic development needs," notably from data centers. The utilities now expect up to a 45% jump in demand in less than a decade.
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