Energy
Proposals for New US Power Plants Jump 90% on Surging Demand
- Surge of new plants planned as EVs, data centers strain grid
- Gas and coal plants represent just 3% of planned new capacity
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As utilities race to keep ahead of rising electricity demand, developers have proposed a surge of new power plants across the US — and very few of them would run on fossil fuels.
The generating capacity of proposed plants seeking to connect to the power grid jumped nearly 90% in the last three years, according to a new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2023, the combined capacity of all those plants totaled almost 2,600 gigawatts. A single gigawatt of electricity can power 750,000 homes.