Two of America’s biggest coal plants closed this month
First the dirtiest ones began shutting down.
Then it was the old ones.
Now it’s some of the biggest.
America’s coal plants
are turning off the boilers, facing brutal economics and customers fleeing for natural gas and renewable energy.
This week,
Arizona’s 2.25-GW Navajo Generating Station burned its last load of coal after no buyers turned up during a two-year search.
Trade publication Utility Dive
reports that the fate of the financially ailing plant was sealed after a bid to force an Arizona water agency to buy its electricity failed.
The Navajo station
emitted about 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, equivalent to 3.3 million cars. It’s one of the biggest retirements in a year of massive shutdowns.
Quartz