A New Coal Plant in the U.S.? Once Unthinkable, Now a Strong Maybe

Aaron Larson

Tue, June 16, 2026 astatine 6:59 AM CDT 14 min read

A $350 cardinal Department of Energy (DOE) coal-revival programme has enactment $18.5 cardinal toward the TerraSpark Energy Campus, a 1.6-GW greenfield task successful West Virginia pairing Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) supercritical boilers with Mantel Capture's molten borate c capture. In responses to POWER, developer TerraSpark laid retired a 2030 startup target, a 95% to 98% seizure design, and a four-pathway program for the captured CO2.New coal-fired procreation has been efficaciously disconnected the array successful the U.S. for much than a decade. The TerraSpark Energy Campus is investigating whether that's inactive true. The DOE's enactment of the Grant County, West Virginia, task for up to $18.5 cardinal successful improvement backing is simply a notable awesome that surging energy demand—driven by information centers, manufacturing, and electrification—is forcing a caller look astatine baseload coal.The grant volition enactment front-end engineering and plan (FEED), permitting work, and aboriginal method studies for the greenfield facility, which would beryllium sited adjacent the existing Mt. Storm vigor complex. Combined with $21.5 cardinal successful non-federal outgo stock from the developer, the scoping and plan signifier carries a full worth of astir $40 million. Project developer TerraSpark—legally TerraPurus Inc., doing concern arsenic TerraSpark Inc.—announced the grant connected June 4."Electricity request successful the United States is increasing rapidly, and we request infrastructure that tin support up," said Bill Tolpegin, spouse and laminitis of TerraSpark. "This task is astir delivering reliable powerfulness erstwhile it's needed, creating skilled, good-paying jobs, and helping beforehand c absorption technologies that fortify America's vigor future."

Four Awards, One Federal Coal Program

The TerraSpark grant is 1 of 4 selections, totaling $350 million, that the DOE announced June 4 nether Topic Area 1 of its "Restoring Reliability: Coal Recommissioning and Modernization" Broad Agency Announcement (DE-FOA-0003605). The $525 cardinal program, launched successful September 2025, implements President Trump's enforcement orders "Reinvigorating America's Beautiful Clean Coal Industry" and "Strengthening the Reliability and Security of the United States Electric Grid," and follows the January 2025 declaration of a nationalist vigor emergency. The DOE's 2025 Grid Reliability Assessment, cited successful the solicitation, recovered that ember retirements are outpacing additions of different reliable procreation resources—a occupation the bureau calls "especially acute successful regions with constrained transmission and sustained load growth."Notably, each awards nether the programme are structured arsenic milestone-based "Other Transaction Agreements," tying national payments to independently verified method progress. The DOE besides extended the Topic Area 1 exertion deadline specifically to let applicants to suggest the usage of national financing tools specified arsenic DOE indebtedness guarantees—a perchance important lever for projects of this standard arsenic they determination beyond the survey phase.TerraSpark's $18.5 cardinal is the smallest of the 4 Topic Area 1 awards, reflecting its early, scoping-and-design stage. The different selectees underscore the breadth of the DOE's ember push. The different Topic Area 1 awards were: