Editor's note: this article originally appeared on EnerKnol. Subscribe here.
The U.S. added 31.3 gigawatts of generating capacity in 2018, the largest since the 2003 capacity addition of 48.8 gigawatts, according to a March 11 report from the Energy Information Administration.
Natural gas accounted for 62% of utility-scale additions, while wind and solar photovoltaic represented 21% and 16%, respectively. Coal accounted for 69% of the 18.7 gigawatts that retired last year.
Pennsylvania accounted for almost 25% of the natural gas-fueled additions last year, while Maryland, Virginia, and Florida had a combined share of about 30%.
More than 60% of the 6.6-gigawatts of wind capacity that came online in 2018 was installed in Texas, Iowa, and Oklahoma.
California, Florida, and North Carolina together added about 60% of the 4.9-gigawatt utility-scale solar photovoltaic installations last year.
About 93% of the 4.7 gigawatts of natural gas-fired capacity retired was from steam and combustion turbine units, which are less efficient technologies that typically operate at lower capacity factors than combined-cycle units.
New Jersey was the only state to retire nuclear capacity, the 600-megawatt Oyster Creek plant that closed in September 2018.
EnerKnol is a provider of regulatory data, analytics, and tracking software for North American energy markets.
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