Natural gas remains king of US electricity generation
Tom KirkmanIndependent Project Manager
Natural gas remains king for generating electricity in the U.S.
Don’t expect demand for natural gas to go away any time soon, especially when coal and nuclear are being retired prematurely, without realistic replacements.
》》Intermittent wind and solar cannot viably replace consistent coal and nuclear. Not without rolling power blackouts.
Natural gas will still be needed as the additional, replacement, electricity generation source when wind and solar fail to produce electricity.
Most of that 14% share of wind and solar electricity generation requires a full backup of electricity generation from natural gas, coal, or nuclear.
Increasing wind and solar adds cost, increases intermittency, causes load problems on the electrical grid, and requires backup from reliable power sources.
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“Last year, the U.S. electric power sector produced 4,090 million megawatthours (MWh) of electric power.
… ● Natural gas remained the largest source of U.S. electricity generation, increasing from a 37% share of U.S. generation in 2021 to 39% in 2022.
》The share of coal-fired generation decreased from 23% in 2021 to 20% in 2022 as a number of coal-fired power plants retired and the remaining plants were used less.
》The share of nuclear generation decreased from 20% in 2021 to 19% in 2022, following the Palisades nuclear power plant’s retirement in May 2022.
》The combined wind and solar share of total generation increased from 12% in 2021 to 14% in 2022.
Hydropower generation remained unchanged, at 6%, in 2022.
The shares for biomass and geothermal sources remained unchanged, at less than 1%. …”
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“The Energy Information Administration expects natural-gas demand to generate U.S. electricity this summer to reach its second-highest level on record, according to the government agency’s monthly Short-term Energy Outlook report issued Tuesday.
The EIA forecasts that an average 38 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas will be consumed to generate electricity in the United States during the summer of this year, which runs from May to September.
That would be the “second most on record behind the 39 [billion cubic feet per day] recorded last year,” it said.
“A decline in coal-fired electricity generation, relatively low natural-gas prices, and more overall electricity generation due to warmer-than-normal temperatures in our forecast,” is expected to lead to high natural gas-fired electric power generation this summer, the EIA said. …”