On March 17th (local time), according to data reported by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the American energy company Terra Energy Center plans to invest $1 billion (approximately KRW 1.49 trillion) to build a coal-fired power plant in Alaska. South Korean private equity fund Korate Asset Management has also agreed to invest $500 million (approximately KRW 750 billion) in the project.
The Terra Energy Center plans to build a power plant with an installed capacity of 1.25 GW. The company has signed a principle agreement with Hyundai Heavy Industries Power Systems (HPS) to supply boilers for the power plant. It is reported that the agreement was reached during the Indo-Pacific Energy Security Ministerial and Business Forum held in Tokyo, Japan, from March 14th to 15th.
This is seen as a major turnround in the decline of the US coal industry, which once accounted for more than half of US electricity production but has since seen its share fall sharply to about 16 per cent. The last large coal-fired power plant to be completed in the US was the 932MW Sandycreek plant in Texas, which opened in 2013.
