“Consumers Energy put years of thoughtful work into closing the Karn facilities, and chief among those considerations was how we wanted the site to operate and function after the closure,” said David Hicks, Consumers Energy’s vice president of clean energy development.
“Based on future use studies and input from local stakeholders, solar emerged as the best option to ensure we continue to be good stewards of the land and to provide valuable tax dollars for the community while still pushing us further toward our sustainability goals.”
The closure and replacement of the Karn plants with solar projects is part of Consumers Energy’s plans to decarbonise its operations, with the utility aiming to retire all of its coal-fired power plants by 2025. While this does not mean the utility will rely entirely on renewable power – the Karn 3 and 4 plants will use natural gas and oil until 2031 – the construction of a solar project will be an important part of the utility’s plans to generate half of its electric capacity with renewables by 2040.
The construction of solar facilities in areas historically reliant on coal power is of particular financial benefit for developers, with the US Inflation Reduction Act offering a 10% bonus on investment tax credits and production tax credits for such solar projects. Opportunities such as these have helped encourage a new wave of solar developments at former coal sites, and could form a key part of the US’ energy transition.
The news also follows the release of figures from the US Energy Information Administration this week, which reveal that the cost of constructing a new solar plant in the US fell 6% between 2020 and 2021, as new solar projects become more financially viable for developers.
Read More: Consumers Energy to build 85MW solar plant on retired coal sites