by Brianna Crandall — April 25, 2014—The United States added over 13,500 megawatts (MW) of new utility-scale generating capacity in 2013, less than half the capacity added in 2012, according to a recent announcement from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), based on data in EIA’s Electric Power Monthly, December 2013 edition.
Natural gas-fired power plants accounted for just over 50% of new generating capacity added in 2013, and solar provided nearly 22%, a jump up from less than 6% in 2012. Coal provided 11%, and wind nearly 8%. Almost half of all capacity added in 2013 was located in California. The specifics from the EIA appear below.
This graph of U.S. power plant capacity additions in 2013 illustrates the dominance of natural gas-fired power plants.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Natural gas
Natural gas capacity additions were less than in 2012, as 6,861 MW were added in 2013, compared to 9,210 MW in 2012. The capacity additions came nearly equally from combustion turbine peaker plants, which generally run only during the highest peak-demand hours of the year, and combined-cycle plants, which provide intermediate and baseload power. Nearly 60% of the natural gas capacity added in 2013 was located in California.
Solar
Solar photovoltaic (PV) added 2,193 MW of capacity in 2013, continuing the trend of the past few years of strong growth, helped in part by falling technology costs as well as aggressive state renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and continued federal investment tax credits. Nearly 75% of the capacity added was located in California, followed by roughly 10% in Arizona. (Note: these figures do not include distributed solar PV capacity under 1 MW, which also grew in 2013; industry reports estimate nonutility additions of 1,900 MW, mostly located in California.)
After many years of little activity, the solar thermal industry completed several large-scale solar thermal plants in 2013 located in Arizona and California totaling 766 MW of capacity, more than doubling the total solar thermal capacity in the United States. A few more projects are expected to be completed in 2014-16; however, several other announced projects have since been cancelled or suspended because of a number of challenges such as environmental impact on desert wildlife and water resources, cost-competitiveness, and delays in transmission development.
Coal
Two coal plants, both delayed projects that were originally scheduled to be completed in 2011-12, accounted for all of the coal capacity added in 2013. The Sandy Creek Energy Station in Texas is a 937 MW conventional steam coal plant that was badly damaged during testing in 2011 and required major repairs before becoming operational. The Edwardsport plant in Indiana is a 571 MW integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) plant, one of only two of the many proposed IGCC projects that actually advanced into construction as natural gas prices dropped.
Wind
Wind capacity additions (1,032 MW) dropped sharply in 2013 to less than one-tenth of the capacity added in 2012 (12,885 MW). This was a widely expected result of the rush to complete wind projects in 2012 to qualify for the federal production tax credit. Unlike previous versions of the tax credit, the one-year extension for 2013 allowed developers to claim the tax credit for projects that began construction in 2013 even if the project will be completed in a later year. At this time, there have not been any subsequent extensions of the tax credit.
California
California added 6,395 MW of capacity, 47% of all capacity added in 2013. The state has added a large amount of new capacity in an effort to deal with a number of problems challenging the state’s resource adequacy and grid reliability, including:
- California’s once-through cooling water policy, passed in 2010, is requiring the state’s numerous power plants that use once-through cooling to either invest in costly retrofits to reduce their water consumption or retire over the next decade.
- The unexpected outage in 2012, and subsequent permanent retirement in 2013, of the 2,150 MW San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) plant in Southern California further exacerbated the state’s near- to mid-term resource adequacy and reliability concerns.
- California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard policy requiring 33% renewable energy by 2020 has led the state’s electric utilities to procure new renewable capacity at a far higher rate than any other state. Integrating these growing levels of variable renewable generation has required more flexible resources to maintain grid reliability and to adapt to the grid’s evolving generation needs.
