Solar, battery storage to lead new U.S. generating capacity additions in 2025
We expect 63 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity to be added to the U.S. power grid in 2025 in our latest Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory report. This amount represents an almost 30% increase from 2024 when 48.6 GW of capacity was installed, the largest capacity installation in a single year since 2002. Together, solar and battery storage account for 81% of the expected total capacity additions, with solar making up over 50% of the increase.
Recent cold snap results in fourth-largest withdrawal from underground natural gas storage
Colder-than-normal temperatures across much of the United States in mid-January increased natural gas consumption, resulting in the fourth-largest reported weekly withdrawal from natural gas storage in the Lower 48 states, according to our Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report (WNGSR). During the week ending January 24, 2025, stocks fell by 321 billion cubic feet (Bcf), which was nearly 70% more than the five-year (2020–24) average withdrawal for the same week in January. With withdrawals in January totaling nearly 1,000 Bcf, U.S. natural gas inventories are now 4% below their previous five-year average after being 6% above the five-year average at the
Remote-Sensing Large-Wood Storage Downstream from Reservoirs After Dam Removal
In a new USGS-led study, scientists have leveraged cutting-edge remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to measure the movement and storage of large wood along the Elwha River in Washington State. This research, which followed the historic removal of two major dams on the river, provides new insights into how natural materials like wood and sediment shape river ecosystems over time. Researchers relied on aerial imagery collected from 2012 to 2017 as part of interdisciplinary before-after/control-impact studies of dam-removal response. The images were generated using structure-from-motion photogrammetry using a digital camera mounted in the wing of a small airplane.