Coal Is Out For We Energies, Oak Creek By 2035

OAK CREEK, WI — Coal is on the way out for We Energies, and the changes are slated to come 15 years earlier than expected, a quarterly earnings report from parent company WEC Energy Group revealed.

Oak Creek is just one Wisconsin city that has long had to live with the presence of a coal-fired power plant in its backyard. Now, WEC Energy Group reports it plans on phasing out the use of coal across its service area by 2035.

By 2030, the company expects to only have five percent of its power generation coming from coal.
Previously, the company was reported to have plans to eliminate coal by 2050.

The four older coal generators built between 1959 and 1967 at the Oak Creek plant were already set for retirement by 2024, reports show. But the two separate coal-fired generators installed near the original Oak Creek plant in 2010 and 2011 — the Elm Road Generating Site — are expected to stay past the older units' expiration date.

As Milwaukee Business Journal reported on first this week, the newer Oak Creek generators will be converted in part to natural gas and the use of coal will eventually be phased out by 2035.

The units, installed in 2011 and 2010, generate about 1200 megawatts while consuming around 6,000 tons of coal daily. They remove over 99 percent of the coal ash they produce, according to the We Energies website.

The changes leading up to the company's new desire to eliminate coal in 2035 come as We Energies seeks to increase fuel flexibility, Wisconsin Public Radio reports.

We Energies is testing blending natural gas with coal to generate power, the company told Milwaukee Business Journal.

A similar approach was taken toward the company's coal-fired plant in Milwaukee in 2015 when the facility was converted to natural gas, a report from the Journal Sentinel showed.

The impending retirement of Oak Creek's old coal turbines is news that had already been reported in 2020. But with the new earnings report, a glimpse is offered into the longer-term plans for energy production across much of Wisconsin as well as plans for the two turbines that would remain in Oak Creek.

The elimination of coal at Oak Creek's power plant would also mean the elimination of the plant's side effects. In 2018, Patch reported on a coating of black dust that was found across Oak Creek.

The dust was found on homes, playgrounds and cars, and as one may expect considering the city's proximity to the coal power plant, it was coal. An independent study confirmed that, and citizens spoke up.

"This isn't the first time this has happened. This is the first time they got caught. Coal dust blowing from the piles at these plants has been a problem for decades," Greg Millard, a resident of Oak Creek said in 2018 about the dust.

Exposure to coal dust is toxic, and there is no safe level. Coal dust, and especially the dust that results as a by-product of burning the stuff —coal ash — contains heavy metal and other toxic substances.

More Patch coverage on the Oak Creek coal power plant:

Study Confirms WE Energies Coal Dust On Oak Creek Homes

Coal Concerns Vex Oak Creek Neighbors Near We Energies Plant

The company's planned move away from coal comes as more investments are being made into renewable energy in Wisconsin. Recently, a brand new solar array was debuted in Cudahy, a spokesperson from WEC Energy group told Patch in an email. Another solar power plant was debuted in Iowa County earlier this year as well.

From 2018-2020, WEC Energy Group cut its production and purchasing of coal energy from over 21,000 gigawatt-hours to 14,000 gigawatt-hours.

In that time, natural gas energy production in gigawatt-hours increased by about 40 percent. Renewable energy that the company generated also increased by about 40 percent, WEC Energy Group laid out in its 2020 corporate responsibility report.

As of 2020, WEC Energy Group had 4.6 million customers across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.