US To Add The Equivalent Of Fifty 250-MW Natural Gas Power Plants This Year (2017) -- April 2, 2017

The other day it was noted that Otter Tail Power would be building a 250-MW natural gas power plant in eastern South Dakota.

Yesterday the EIA noted that thirteen gigawatts of natural gas-fired power generating capacity would be added in the United States in 2017.

Curious: how many 250-MW natural gas power plants need to be constructed to generate 13 gigawatts of generating capacity? 13,000,000,000 divided by 250,000,000 = 52 power plants.

In 2017. One year. Making American great. Again.

Disclaimer: I often make simple arithmetic errors.

From the linked article:

In 2017, 13 gigawatts (GW) of natural gas-fired generating capacity is scheduled to come online in the United States, adding to total end-of-2016 natural gas-fired capacity of 431 GW. More than 90% of these capacity additions are coming from combined-cycle power plants, which offer improved efficiency over simple-cycle combustion turbines or steam turbines alone. So far in 2017, two combined-cycle facilities—over 1 GW in total—have been completed and put into service.

That is 2017. The data for 2016 is at this post.

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Public Transportation

This isn't going to happen, but it's being talked about:

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is proposing to eliminate all weekend commuter rail service and thousands of door-to-door rides for disabled passengers for a year, part of a series of cost-cutting moves to close a $42 million budget deficit.

Public transportation is a frequent topic over at The Coyote Blog. This post was particularly illuminating.