Groundbreaking
How fast America physically starts building power: megawatts entering construction each month, by technology, from monthly EIA-860M vintages.
What does it show?
How fast America physically starts building power. Each bar is the megawatts of generating capacity that entered construction that month, stacked by technology. In 2026-06, 8,753 MW broke ground.
Methodology
Consecutive monthly EIA-860M vintages are diffed by plant + generator ID. A generator counts as breaking ground the first month its reported status enters the construction bucket (codes U, V, or TS — construction underway, more or less than 50% complete, or testing), and it counts exactly once. Generators already building in the baseline vintage (2023-06) never count.
Limits
EIA-860M is a monthly self-reported census of generators of 1 MW and above; smaller projects are invisible. A generator whose status jumps straight from planning to operating registers as a completion without ever registering a groundbreaking.