Retirement Set for Wisconsin’s Second-Largest Coal Plant
The post Retirement Set for Wisconsin’s Second-Largest Coal Plant appeared first on POWER Magazine.
The Columbia Energy Center, a two-unit 1,100-MW coal-fired station located in Columbia County, Wisconsin, south of Portage, will be permanently retired by the end of 2024.
Alliant Energy, which co-owns the facility with Wisconsin Public Service Corp. (a subsidiary of WEC Energy Group) and Madison Gas and Electric Co., made the announcement on Feb. 2. It said Unit 1 would be shuttered by the end of 2023, with Unit 2 closed the following year.
“The closure of Columbia is truly a historic moment as we stop burning coal in our Wisconsin Operations and fully turn our attention to generating cleaner energy using renewable resources, such as solar, battery storage and high efficiency gas,” David de Leon, president of Alliant Energy’s Wisconsin energy company, said in a statement.
Alliant Energy has set goals of cutting CO2 emissions in half by 2030, and eliminating all coal from its generation fleet by 2040.…