United States. The U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced that the growing demand for air conditioning services in the summer has led to an increase in gas-fired power generation in the United States. Power generation in gas-fired thermal power plants (TPPs) increased by 18% in June 2023 compared to the previous month, reaching 161.9 terawatt-hours (TWh), the highest level since the beginning of this year.
Gas-fired power generation in the United States increased by 8% (to 814.7 TWh) in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. The share of gas in the country's energy mix increased from 37% in January-June 2022 to 41% in January-June 2023. Apart from the increase in demand observed in June, the construction of new generation facilities also contributed to this.
According to Global Energy Monitor, the United States accounted for one-third of gas-fired power plants brought online worldwide, or 5.7 gigawatts (GW) of 16.9 GW. In this regard, the United States ranks first in the world, ahead of China (2 GW), which continues to build new gas-fired power plants to meet its growing energy demand, and Iraq (1.1 GW), where the high availability of raw material is an important driver for the development of gas-fired power generation.
Coal-fired power generation fell by 27% (to 814.7 TWh) in the first half of 2023, and its share of the overall energy mix declined from 20% to 15%. The transition from coal-fired power generation remains a key factor. In the first half of 2023, a total of 28 coal-fired power units with an aggregate capacity of 10.3 GW were disconnected from the grid worldwide, including 12 power units totaling 5 GW in the US.
In addition to gas-fired power plants, hydroelectric plants play a larger role in the American energy industry. As for nuclear power plants, their production fell by 1% (to 377.4 TWh) in the first half of 2023, although their share increased from 18% to 19% due to the overall reduction in power generation.
For its part, the production of hydroelectric power plants (HPP), which depends on precipitation levels, fell by 11% in the first half of 2023 (to 128.5 TWh), while the production of solar panels increased by 7% (to 79.5 TWh). As in the case of gas-fired power plants, this dynamic was affected by new capacities: in the first half of 2023, 5.9 GW of solar generators were launched in the United States, of which a quarter were launched in Florida.
Finally, power generation from all other renewable energy sources (RES) in the first half of 2023 decreased by 5% (to 269.1 TWh). At the same time, the share of RES in the overall energy mix, as in the first half of 2022, remained at the level of 25%, while the share of traditional sources, including power plants using fuel oil and diesel, reached 75%.
