2016 will see first nuclear plant in the US in 20 years and no new coal plants

Ars Technica : On Tuesday the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its predictions for the new utility-scale energy-generation capacity that will be added to the US electrical grid in 2016. In April, the first new nuclear plant in 20 years is expected to open and produce 1.1 GW of power. That amount of power generation will be significantly lower than that from wind and solar sources, which the EIA estimates will account for nearly two-thirds of the new capacity. Solar alone will provide an additional 9.5 GW, more than it did in the past three years combined. New wind plants will add 6.8 GW, down from last year’s 8.1 GW. Much of the boom in renewable sources was due to fears that tax incentives would expire at the end of the year, but those incentives got extended. Counting distributed solar installations—the addition of solar panels to residential and commercial properties, which contributed 8.4 GW in 2015—the total generation from solar could be twice the EIA number. Regarding nonrenewable sources, no new coal plants are expected to open, and the majority of new generation is expected to come from natural gas plants, which will add 8.0 GW of capacity.