A Western Utility Takes a Big, Surprising Step Away from Coal (InsideClimate News)
The story from InsideClimate News:
One of the leading utilities of the Mountain West has made a big—and surprising—move to embrace renewable energy and leave coal behind. PacifiCorp last week released a summary of its long-term plan for power plants, including major investments in wind, solar and energy storage, and an accelerated schedule for shutting down 20 of its 24 coal-fired power plant units. Several of those units would now close more than a decade sooner than previously planned. The company, part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, covers most of Utah and Wyoming and parts of California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Until now, its decisions often seemed to reflect that much of its service territory is in coal country.
So what changed?
Company officials say they were swayed by the rapid decrease in costs of renewable energy and by consumer demands to move toward a cleaner mix of power sources.
Here are some specifics of what the company intends to do between now and 2038:
Close 20 of the company’s 24 coal-fired generating units.
Add 6,300 megawatts of new solar power, which is up from almost no solar today.
Add 4,600 megawatts of new wind power, which is more than quadruple the current level.
Add 2,800 megawatts of battery storage that would work alongside solar, which is up from almost no storage today.
The company will still be using fossil fuels. One of the coal units that's slated to close would be converted to run on natural gas, and the company’s existing natural gas plants would continue to operate. The plan also calls for 1,800 megawatts of new natural gas plants starting in 2026, most of them “peaker” plants that would operate briefly at times of high demand. The company says it will use the next few years to explore whether “non-emitting capacity resources” can be used instead of those gas plants.
