One of the largest problems with most current thermal power plants is the cooling efficiency. This paper aims to massively reduce fuel consumption and heat wasted in thermal power plants and hence CO2 emissions by resolving fouling issues associated with air-cooled condensers. In order to reduce the dust fouling deposition in the air-cooled condensers, the finned flat tubes were coated with nickel−phosphorus and nickel−phosphorus−polytetrafluoroethylene (Ni–P-PTFE) by an electroless coating technology. The anti-fouling performance of the coated tubes was investigated using the field operation parameters of air-cooled condensers, and the influence of the surface energies of the coatings on the dust adhesion was also investigated. The results demonstrated that the Ni–P coated finned tubes performed best, which reduced fouling resistance by 83.3% compared with the untreated finned tubes. The Ni–P coatings have potential applications in thermal power plants for reducing heat exchanger fouling and hence significantly decreasing waste heat and CO2 emissions. Graphic abstract