Natural gas generation at existing plants had a great year in 2012, with natural gas providing 30% of America's electricity, and even equaling coal generation at 34% for the month of April. Though gas fired power plants were working harder in 2012, the amount of new gas-fired capacity built in 2012 saw a 20% drop.
Last year, 8,746 megawatts of new gas capacity started operation and that was down considerably from 11,020 in 2011. http://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/dec-2012-energy-infrastructure.pdf. This drop is surprising, since new coal plants surged in 2012, as did new wind and solar capacity.
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