Chapter 4 · interconnection queues

Queue reality check

About 1.8 TW of nameplate capacity sits in U.S. interconnection queues, but historically most projects never reach commercial operation — and those that do typically wait 2 to 5 years. Below: the funnel by region, the median time to commercial operation, and the resource mix in each active queue today. Data from LBNL's Queued Up, split across nine regions — seven ISOs/RTOs plus the non-ISO Southeast and West.

The funnel · share of projects by status, per region

Each row is one region. Bar widths represent the share of capacity (GW) in each status; the number on the right is the total GW across all statuses.

Median months in queue, by region and outcome

From the date the project entered the queue to the milestone (operational date for operational projects; proposed COD for active ones; withdrawal date for withdrawn ones).

Region	Active	Operational	Withdrawn

Slippage box plot · every region at once

Months from queue entry to commercial operation, across every region where projects actually cleared. Box = IQR; line = median; whiskers = min/max within the 0–240 month window.

Has the funnel gotten worse? · withdrawal rate by queue-entry cohort

U.S. aggregate; resolved = withdrawn + operational

Read each bar as "of every 10 resolved projects entering the queue in year Y, how many were withdrawn vs. operational." A rising line means the funnel is getting worse, not better.

Active queue · resource mix today

Active projects only. The 100%-stacked view shows the composition of each region's queue; the absolute-GW view shows the relative size (ERCOT and MISO dwarf ISO-NE).

How to read this. Withdrawn isn't the same as rejected. Projects drop out of queues for many reasons — financing, off-take, an alternative site — and the same nameplate often re-enters a different region later. Historically only about 15% of projects ever reach operation, so a queue slot is closer to an option than a commitment. Full methodology & sources.

Caveats specific to LBNL data

The LBNL Queued Up data we use is an annual snapshot. Weekly ISO updates exist (gridstatus.io aggregates them); this page intentionally uses the LBNL cut for consistency across regions.
"Active queue capacity" here includes both active and suspended projects — matching LBNL's published headline. operational projects are excluded (already connected) and withdrawn are obviously excluded.
A small fraction of project IDs appear in more than one region (seam projects). We dedup to one row per ID, keeping the most recent queue date as the canonical record.