The country’s electric generating capacity, despite warnings of upcoming shortages, is expected to see a 30% increase this year over where things stood in 2024, according to a new government report.
Upwards of 63 gigawatts of new utility-scale electric generating capacity is forecast to be added before the end of the year, says the report, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
That gigawatt increase represents a 30% jump over last year, with new solar and battery storage accounting for 81% of the capacity increase.
Wind and solar construction facilities will be particularly prominent in the states of the East and Midwest, while battery facility building will prove dominant in a swath of the southwest stretching from eastern Texas to southern California.
In the solar sector, says the report, Texas and California will account for nearly half of new utility-scale solar capacity to be built. While five states: Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, and New York, will each account for “more than 1 gigawatt of added solar capacity in 2025, and collectively account for 7.8 gigawatts of planned solar capacity additions.”
Battery storage capacity growth, meanwhile, may set a record this year, with at least 18.2 gigawatts of utility-scale battery storage expected to be added to the nation’s grid.
Noting that U.S. battery storage achieved record growth last year when power providers added 10.3 gigawatts of capacity, the report observes: “This growth highlights the importance of battery storage when used with renewable energy, helping to balance supply and demand and improve grid stability.”
Nearly half of this year’s new wind capacity will come out of Massachusetts, Texas, and Wyoming, altogether adding 7.7 gigawatts of wind capacity to the U.S. grid.
Less active than the other generating sectors, new natural gas-fired capacity in the country is slated to see an increase of 4.4 gigawatts of capacity. To that end, projects in Tennessee, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Utah will make up more than 70% of the planned natural gas additions.
Project construction in all sectors is expected to be active throughout most of the first half of 2025, followed by a slight decline in the summer and fall months, before a giant spurt of mostly solar capacity construction at the end of the year.
March 3, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
