Solar Took 59% of New US Capacity in the First Half. Coal Is Still the Fuel Plants Are Stockpiling

The midyear figures from the Energy Information Administration confirm what the January forecasts promised. Developers and plant owners added 20.2 gigawatts of utility-scale capacity in the first half of 2024, 21% more than in the first half of 2023. Solar accounted for 12 GW, or 59%. Batteries added 4.2 GW and wind 2.5 GW. Retirements slowed to 5.1 GW, from 9.2 GW in the first six months of 2023. Wind generated more electricity than coal in both March and April, the first time it had done so for two months in a row.

The largest projects included the 690 megawatt Gemini solar and storage facility in Nevada and the 653 MW Lumina project in Texas. California took 37% of the US total, Texas 24%, Arizona 19% and Nevada 13%. Canyon Wind, at 309 MW, and Goodnight, at 266 MW, both in Texas, were the largest. Developers plan to add 42.6 GW between July and December, nearly 60% of it solar at 25 GW, followed by 10.8 GW of storage and 4.6 GW of wind.

Gas made up 53% of retired capacity in the first half and coal 41%. The largest coal retirements were Seminole Electric Cooperative's Unit 1 in Florida, at 626.0 MW, in January, and Homer City Unit 1 in Pennsylvania, at 626.1 MW, in April. Mystic is a good example of why retirements are not simply a matter of age. It had been kept running for several years under reliability arrangements because it was tied to an LNG import terminal that helped secure winter gas supply for the region.

Wind turbines produced 45.9 terawatthours in March 2024, against 38.4 TWh from coal. In April, wind reached a record 47.7 TWh and coal fell to 37.2 TWh. Wind output peaks in spring in the United States, while coal plants often schedule maintenance in that season of moderate demand. Putting these numbers together gives a picture of the transition at its current stage.