U.S. Natural Gas Capacity Retired · Annual (GW)

## What this measures

The nameplate capacity, in gigawatts, of natural gas generators in the 50 states and D.C. that retired in each calendar year, from 2002. Only complete years are published: a year appears once EIA's December workbook is out.

## Why it matters

Retirements set how much new capacity the grid needs just to stand still. U.S. retirements peaked in the late 2010s as coal plants closed; with demand growing again, how fast old plants leave matters as much as how fast new ones arrive.

## How to read it

Higher means more capacity left the grid that year. Compare with capacity added (energy.capacity_added_annual_gw.us.total): the gap is the net change in the fleet.

## What it does not say

Nameplate capacity is rated maximum output, not generation; a retired coal plant may have run little in its final years. EIA-860M is preliminary, and late reports can move recent years. Puerto Rico is excluded.

## How it's built

Every generator on the newest workbook's Retired sheet, summed by its Retirement Year and fuel group, and converted to GW. Coal is every technology naming coal; gas every technology naming natural gas. Each run rewrites the whole history from the newest workbook.

## Source

U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-860M, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory (eia.gov/electricity/data/eia860m), the monthly workbook. EIA data are U.S. government works in the public domain; EIA asks that it be credited as the source. Refreshed weekly by /api/cron/eia-power-sync.