Nearly 468,000 MW of new generation capacity is under development in the U.S., which is comparable to the total capacity under development this time last year, the American Public Power Association said in its annual report on current and imminent electricity generation capacity in the United States by types of fuel, region, and ownership.
Of this capacity, 132,518 MW is under construction or permitted, and 335,374 MW is proposed or pending application.
The report analyzes prospective generation capacity in four categories: under construction, permitted, application pending, and proposed.
A majority of all new generation capacity under development is for solar energy (51%), followed by wind (33%) and natural gas (7%).
However, three-quarters of the wind capacity is in the “proposed” stage, which is the earliest and most uncertain stage of development and includes units that are least likely to be built.
Trends in the development stages of the share of fuel type also show that wind capacity is far less likely than solar to move to the application phase and beyond. Fifty-seven percent of the solar generation in development is for permitted plants and plants that are under construction, which are the stages of development that are most likely to come online.
A large majority of all future capacity is owned by non-utility generators.
The report said that solar capacity has increased by over 17,000 MW in 2023, and nearly 35,000 MW are under preparation, testing, or construction and projected to come online in 2024.
For the third year in a row, solar was the leading source of new utility-scale capacity. Over 6,000 MW of wind capacity came online in 2023, and over 5,600 MW are projected to come online in 2024.
Energy storage is now included in the report due to its increasing deployment and role in integrating renewable energy resources on the grid.
Pumped hydro storage is classified as hydropower capacity. Megawatts of energy storage are not included as a part of the capacity totals and are instead reported as standalone additions.
Over 7,000 MW of energy storage were added in 2023 to supplement generation capacity, with 11,668 MW of additional energy storage under preparation, testing, or construction projected to come online in 2024.
Generation Retirements, Cancellations
The report also provides information on retirements, planned retirements, and cancellations over the past several years.
More than 36,000 MW of planned capacity developments were canceled in 2023. Solar accounts for a plurality (47%) of the cancellations, and wind and natural gas projects account for most of the remaining cancellations in 2023. Capacity additions (35,804 MW) outpace the total capacity retired (15,722 MW) in 2023.
A majority of the capacity retired in 2023 was from coal-fired facilities (65%), with over 10,000 MW retired, and 86,721 MW of coal has been retired since 2016. More than 56,000 MW in coal capacity is planned to be retired through 2028, which represents over a quarter of the current generation capacity of all coal-fired facilities.
Currently, the U.S. has nearly 1.3 million megawatts of generation capacity. The largest fuel source is natural gas, accounting for just under 44% of all generation capacity. Coal, with a share of 16%, represents the second largest source of generation capacity. Wind, nuclear, hydro, and solar together account for more than one-third of capacity
All figures in the report represent utility-scale capacity only and do not include distributed and other small-scale generation capacity. The report includes generation capacity data from 50 U.S. states as well as American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
