U.S. Expected to Add Nearly 43 Gigawatts of Generating Capacity During Second Half of This Year: EIA

U.S. power plant operators and developers added 20.2 gigawatts (GW) of utility scale power generating capability during the first six months of 2024, according to an Aug. 19 report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The new capacity is 21 percent or 3.6 GW higher than capacity added during a similar period in 2023.

Developers and power plant owners are expected to add 42.6 GW of power generating capacity during the second half of this year. Around 60 percent, or 25 GW, of the planned capacity is from solar. Battery storage and wind power additions account for 10.8 GW and 4.6 GW respectively.

Solar made up the greatest share of newly operating production capacity in the U.S. during the first half of the year, totaling 12 GW or 59 percent of all additions. Texas and Florida accounted for 38 percent of U.S. solar additions.

Battery storage accounted for 4.2 GW or 21 percent of total capacity additions during the first six months of the year. Meanwhile, wind power accounted for 2.5 GW or 12 percent of U.S. capacity additions for the same time period.

Retirements of U.S. power generating capacity has decelerated during 2024. Developers and plant operators closed 5.1 GW of production capacity during the first six months of 2024. Operators had previously retired 9.2 GW for a similar period during 2023. Over 50 percent of the retired capacity so far during 2024 had used gas as its fuel, followed by coal at 41 percent. Seminole Electric Cooperative’s Unit 1 in Florida and Homer City Generating Station’s Unit in Pennsylvania were the largest U.S. coal retirements.

If solar generating capacity additions are implemented as forecasted, then solar capacity additions will reach 37 GW during 2024, a record high for any given year and close to doubling solar additions during 2023. Meanwhile, around 2.4 GW of capacity is projected to retire during the last six months of 2024.