FutureMetrics published a white paper that describes how converting US coal-fired power plants to burn wood pellets can help fill the projected gap between US power generation capacity and electricity demand. The white paper, authored by William Struass, explains that electricity demand could increase by 175 gigawatts over the next decade, fueled in part by increased power demand from AI. At the same time, hundreds of old coal-fired plants representing more than 110 GW of capacity are scheduled to retire resulting in an expected gap of nearly 300 GW of capacity over the next 10 years. …The use of wood pellets, however, can help provide a solution. Strauss cites success in the UK, where former coal plants now provide baseload power using wood pellets. Most of the wood pellet fuel currently used in the UK comes from the U.S. Strauss estimates the US exported just under 7 million metric tons of wood pellets to the UK last year.