Coal plant retirements will accelerate, with 11GW retiring in 2025 and 4GW in 2026. Credit: Todor Stoyanov-Raveo/Shutterstock.

The US Energy Information Agency (EIA) has forecast that power generation growth in the country up to 2027 will be driven predominantly by solar capacity additions, in its latest short-term energy outlook.

The EIA projects that US utilities and independent power producers will add 26GW of solar capacity to the electric power sector in 2025 and 22GW in 2026.

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This follows a record-setting 37GW of solar power capacity added in 2024, almost doubling the capacity additions of the previous year.

Wind capacity is also expected to grow, with an estimated increase of 8GW in 2025 and 9GW in 2026.

Renewable power generation is predicted to rise by 12% to 1,058 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2025 and by an additional 8% to 1,138 billion kWh in 2026.

Renewables were the second-largest contributor to US power generation in 2024, accounting for 945 billion kWh, a 9% increase from 2023.

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Nuclear power is also expected to see growth, with a 2% increase to 796 billion kWh in 2025 and a 1% increase to 800 billion kWh in 2026, partly due to new units at the Vogtle power plant and the restart of the Palisades power plant.

Generating capacity from most other energy sources, including natural gas and coal, will remain relatively stable.

Natural gas-fired capacity growth has slowed, with only 1GW added in 2024, despite natural gas maintaining its position as the largest source of US power generation.

Coal generation is forecasted to remain consistent at around 640 billion kWh in both 2025 and 2026.

The EIA also forecast coal retirements to accelerate, with 11GW expected to be removed in 2025 and an additional 4GW in 2026.

In 2024, approximately 3GW of coal power capacity was taken offline – the smallest annual reduction in coal capacity since 2011.