2023 Electric-Generating Capacity: U.S. Energy Information Administration Predicts More Than 50 Percent of New Facilities Will Be Solar

The United Stated Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) published a February 6th report titled:

More Than Half of New U.S. Electric-Generating Capacity in 2023 Will Be Solar (“Report”)

The Report projects that of the 54.5 gigawatts (“GW”) that developers plan to add of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity in the United States in 2023, around 54 percent will be solar powered.

This projection is based on the EIA document:

Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, December 2022

The Report’s comments regarding the different energy sources that will be utilized for new utility-scale electric-generating capacity in the U.S. in 2023 include:

• Solar
  • Utility-scale solar capacity declined by 23 percent in 2022 compared with 2021 (due to supply chain disruptions and pandemic-related challenges)
  • Some of the delayed 2022 projects will begin operating in 2023
  • Developers are projected to install 29.1 GW of solar power in the United States in 2023
  • The greatest new solar capacity will be found in the State of Texas (7.7 GW) and California (4.2 GW)
• Battery Storage
  • The U.S. battery capacity is projected to more than double in 2023
  • Developers are projected to add 9.4 GW of battery storage to the existing 8.8 GW of battery storage capacity
  • 71 percent of the additional battery storage capacity will be in California and Texas
• Natural Gas
  • Developers are projected to build 7.5 GW of new natural-gas fired capacity in 2023
  • 83 percent of the added capacity will be from combined-cycle plants
• Wind
  • Developers are projected to add 6.0 GW of utility-scale wind capacity in 2023
  • Annual U.S. wind capacity additions have begun to slow
  • Record additions of more than 14 GW were added in both 2020 and 2021
  • The most wind capacity will be added in Texas in 2023 at 2.0 GW
  • Offshore capacity is expected to come online with a 130.0 MW offshore windfarm in New York
• Nuclear
• Two new nuclear reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia are scheduled to come online in 2023
• Vogtle reactors will provide a combined 2.2 GW of capacity and are the first new nuclear plants built in the United States in more than 30 years

A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.