More than three-quarters of new electricity generation in the U.S. in 2015 will likely come from wind and natural gas, while 81% of the retiring generation capacity will be coal plants, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported yesterday.
The EIA expects more than 20 gigawatts of new capacity to be added to the grid this year, including 9.8 GW of wind, 6.3 GW of natural gas, and 2.2 GW of solar. Over the same period, coal-fired generating stations accounting for 12.9 GW of capacity will be shut down.
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“These values reflect reported additions and retirements, not model projections,” the EIA notes. “The addition of more natural gas, solar, and wind generating capacity follows the pattern of the past several years.”
