Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about power plant data, EIA and eGRID sources, and what the numbers on this site actually mean.
Where does this data come from?
Plant locations, nameplate capacity, ownership, and generator details come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Form EIA-860. Annual generation and fuel consumption come from EIA Form 923. Emissions data (CO₂, SO₂, NOₓ) come from the EPA's eGRID dataset. ZIP code centroids for proximity search come from GeoNames. All four are public federal or open-data sources.
How often is the data updated?
EIA-860 is published annually, usually in late summer for the prior reporting year. EIA-923 is published monthly with a 3–6 month lag. EPA eGRID is published every one to two years. We rebuild our database from the latest available release on a regular basis. The last data build date is shown on the methodology page.
What counts as a "power plant" in this dataset?
We include every U.S. electric generating facility that reports to EIA Form 860 with verified coordinates — utility-scale generators across coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, oil, and battery storage. Rooftop solar and small behind-the-meter generation are not tracked by EIA-860 and do not appear here.
Why do some plants have $0 or missing emissions numbers?
Emissions values come from EPA eGRID, which primarily reports fossil-fuel combustion units. Non-emitting plants — nuclear, wind, solar, hydro, geothermal — correctly show zero CO₂, SO₂, and NOₓ because they don't emit those pollutants during generation. Small fossil plants below eGRID's reporting threshold may appear with missing values. Missing is not the same as zero.
What's the difference between nameplate capacity and net generation?
Nameplate capacity (measured in megawatts, MW) is the maximum instantaneous power output a plant is designed to produce. Net generation (measured in megawatt-hours, MWh) is the actual electricity produced over a year, minus what the plant itself consumed to operate. The ratio between them is the capacity factor: nuclear plants typically run above 90%, combined-cycle gas in the 50–60% range, and wind and solar between 25–40%.
What does "fuel category" mean — how are plants grouped?
EIA tracks dozens of specific energy sources. We group them into twelve broad categories for navigation: natural gas, coal, nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, biomass, oil, geothermal, battery storage, other fossil, and other. The category reflects each plant's primary fuel — the largest generator's main energy source.
How do I cite PowerPlantsNearMe.com in a paper or article?
Use the methodology page as your stable reference. See the methodology page for a copy-pasteable citation block. For strict academic work, cite the original EIA and EPA datasets directly — this site is a reader-friendly view, not an authoritative source.
Can I download the raw data?
Yes. Each state has a CSV download at /api/download/{state}.csv — for example, /api/download/texas.csv. A free JSON API with filtering is also documented at /api. No registration, no rate limits, no API keys. Please cite PowerPlantsNearMe.com if you publish derived work.
Is this data authoritative?
No. The authoritative sources are the EIA (for capacity and generation) and the EPA (for emissions). This site is a searchable, reader-friendly view of those datasets, optimized for proximity lookup and browsing. For regulatory, permitting, or compliance work, always consult the original federal releases directly.
Who built this?
PowerPlantsNearMe.com was built by Patrick White as part of a small family of free federal-data lookup sites including MinesNearMe.com, SoilLookup.com, and RadonLevels.org. More background on the about page and at pwhite.org.