Electricity Generation – Planned Additions and Retirements

Between April 2015 and March 2016, there is a cumulative total of 88,953 megawatts of new electric utility capacity planned. This new capacity will add to the current U.S. capacity of about 1,071,000 megawatts. Over half (53%) of the new capacity that is planned comes from natural gas while 24% comes from wind and 11% from solar. Just 2% of the new planned capacity comes from coal. Most of the planned wind energy is in the mid-section of the United States extending from Texas to North Dakota. Most of the new solar capacity is in the southwest with the exception of North Carolina which also has a lot of new solar planned—1,652 megawatts which is 16% of all new solar capacity planned from April 2015 to March 2016. During this same timeframe, utility generators representing 40,095 megawatts of capacity are set to retire. Nearly three-fourths (73%) of the capacity being retired is from coal, predominantly in the Midwest and Southeast.