2013 Electricity Generation Scoreboard: Coal Up 7.5%; Gas Down 13.9%; Wind Up 20.5%

This year has become a great year for wind and solar production, a good year for coal, but a truly lousy one for natural gas in power markets.

Compared to 2012, wind generation is up 20.5% and solar 85.3%. Coal is rebounding from its knockout at the hands of natural gas in 2012 and is up 7.5%.  Even nuclear is eking out a 0.5% increase
http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_es1b.

But power markets have not treated kindly all power generation sources. The 2013 gains for especially coal and wind have come at the expense of natural gas that is down a sharp 13.9% in this year to date.  Natural gas has generated 102 billion kilowatt-hours less power, while coal has produced 64 billion kilowatt-hours more and all renewables 21 billion kilowatt-hours more.

The intensity of the 2013 competition between coal and gas for market share is increased by the fact that this year's market is slightly smaller than in 2012. The generation pie actually has shrank so far this year!