U.S. Energy Grid Added 20.2 GW of Producing Capability in 1st Half of 2024 — Nearly Solely Clear Power

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In line with our newest Preliminary Month-to-month Electrical Generator Stock, builders and energy plant homeowners added 20.2 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale electrical producing capability in the US in the course of the first half of 2024. This new capability is 3.6 GW (21%) greater than the capability added in the course of the first six months of 2023. Primarily based on probably the most not too long ago reported information, builders and homeowners anticipate so as to add one other 42.6 GW of capability within the second half of the 12 months.

Operational capability additions: As in 2023, photo voltaic accounted for the biggest share of newly working producing capability in the US in the course of the first half of 2024. Photo voltaic additions totaled 12 GW, 59% of all additions. Texas and Florida made up 38% of U.S. photo voltaic additions. The 690-megawatt (MW) photo voltaic and storage Gemini facility in Nevada and the 653-MW Lumina Photo voltaic Mission in Texas had been the biggest photo voltaic tasks that got here on-line within the first six months of 2024.

The second-most capability additions to date this 12 months had been battery storage, which made up 21% (4.2 GW). Battery additions had been concentrated in 4 states: California (37% of the U.S. whole), Texas (24%), Arizona (19%), and Nevada (13%). The 380-MW battery storage capability at Gemini and the 300-MW Eleven Mile Photo voltaic Middle in Arizona had been the 2 largest tasks that got here on-line within the first half of 2024.

Wind energy made up 12% (2.5 GW) of U.S. capability additions. Canyon Wind (309 MW) and Goodnight (266 MW), each positioned in Texas, had been the biggest wind tasks that got here on-line within the first half of the 12 months.

Nuclear energy elevated in the US throughout 2024 as effectively. Unit 4 (1,114 MW) at Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear energy plant started industrial operations in April, making Vogtle the biggest nuclear facility in the US and the one one with 4 nuclear energy reactors.

Retired capability: Retirement of U.S. electrical producing capability has slowed in 2024. Operators retired 5.1 GW of producing capability within the first half of the 12 months. Throughout the first six months of 2023, operators retired 9.2 GW of technology. Within the first half of 2024, greater than half (53%) of the retired capability had used pure fuel as its gasoline, adopted by coal at 41%.

The most important U.S. coal retirements embody Seminole Electrical Cooperative’s Unit 1 (626.0 MW) in Florida, which retired in January, and Homer Metropolis Producing Station’s Unit 1 (626.1 MW) in Pennsylvania, which retired in April. The six-unit, 1,413-MW Mystic Producing Station combined-cycle facility in Massachusetts was the biggest pure fuel retirement this 12 months and had been the third-largest energy plant in New England.

Plans for modifications in capability: Builders plan so as to add 42.6 GW of latest capability in the US within the second half of 2024. Almost 60% of that deliberate capability is from photo voltaic (25 GW), adopted by battery storage (10.8 GW) and wind (4.6 GW).

If utilities add all of the photo voltaic capability they’re at present planning, photo voltaic capability additions will whole 37 GW in 2024, a report in anybody 12 months and nearly double final 12 months’s 18.8 GW.

Utilities may additionally add a report quantity of battery storage capability this 12 months (15 GW) if all deliberate additions come on-line. Plans for storage capability in Texas and California at present account for 81% of latest battery storage capability within the second half of the 12 months.

About 2.4 GW of capability is scheduled to retire in the course of the second half of 2024, together with 0.7 GW of coal and 1.1 GW of pure fuel.

Initially revealed on At present in Power. Principal contributor: Suparna Ray