Vistra to retire coal and build more renewables

• 3 years ago (2020-09-30)
• David Flin

Coal 274 North America 998 Solar 243

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Vistra has announced that it will spend $1.15 billion on solar and storage projects in California and Texas, USA by 2022 and retire 6.8 GW of coal assets by 2027. This is to help it achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Curt Morgan, President and CEO of Vistra, said that his company is “well positioned to participate in the renewable and battery storage transformation.” He also said that Vistra had accelerated its greenhouse gas emissions cut targets to 60 per cent below the 2010 baseline by 2030, from 50 per cent, and to net zero by 2050 from 80 per cent.

Vistra plans to add the following capacity in California and Texas by 2022, at a combined cost of $1.15 billion.

• 2020: California: 300 MW of energy storage.
• 2021: California: 100 MW of extra energy storage.
• 2021: Texas: 278 MW of solar.
• 2022: California: 36.25 MW more energy storage.
• 2022: Texas: 260 MW energy storage.
• 2022: Texas: 400 MW extra solar.

The company also announced its next phase of coal plant closures in Illinois and Ohio with a combined capacity of more than 6.8 MW by 2027.