Natural gas is dominating the new generation market in 2013 through the first half of the year. Gas plants accounted for 53% of all generation capacity that opened from January to June 2013. And for gas, this year is better than last. New gas capacity is up 13% in the first half of 2013, compared to 2012.
http://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2013/jun-energy-infrastructure.pdf.
An impressive 4,852 megawatts of new gas capacity began operating in the first 6 months, though it should be noted that the FERC data does not include the large amount of distributed solar generation that is now built every month. The new gas plants are much more efficient than older coal-fired power plants and so threaten them in competitive markets.
If there is a war on coal, it is new, efficient gas plants that are fighting it!
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