Wyoming utility leading drive to expand wind and solar

The state’s largest utility company is placing the finishing touches on a new Integrated Resource Plan — a blueprint for PacifiCorp’s master energy strategy through 2038. Wyoming lawmakers and coal-dependent communities have been holding their breath for the release of the company’s preferred portfolio after hints that accelerated coal-fired power plant retirements could be in the mix. In coal’s stead would come major advances in renewable energy.

As it so happens, PacifiCorp’s draft of the biennial plan unveiled Thursday targets for retirement by 2030 two-thirds of the company’s thermal coal units spread across multiple states. Wyoming will soon reckon with the shuttering of numerous thermal coal units, starting with Jim Bridger’s unit 1, near Rock Springs, in 2023. Wyoming’s plethora of coal plants have provided electricity to the western grid for decades.

If approved, the changes proposed in PacifiCorp’s most recent plan would mark a historic revamping of the Equality State’s energy landscape, and likely affect every corner of the state.

“What we are basically seeing is the beginning of the end of coal mining in southwestern Wyoming, which has gone on since before statehood.” said Rob Godby, an economist at the University of Wyoming.

Read more: https://trib.com/business/energy/wyoming-utility-leading-drive-to-expand-wind-and-solar/article_80c14318-b952-50a7-b1f4-34669b921c78.html
(Casper Star Tribune)