Ameren formally owns its largest photo voltaic facility. The mission close to Beardstown, Illinois is certainly one of three main photo voltaic tasks the corporate is including by 2024.
The Cass County Renewable Energy Center will come on-line later this 12 months and produce 150 megawatts of energy, sufficient to energy about 27,500 houses every year in accordance with Savion LLC, the corporate Ameren purchased the power from.
This photo voltaic vitality will probably be a part of Ameren’s Renewable Solutions program, which gives renewable vitality to companies that pay a premium to satisfy their environmental objectives. Companies together with Walmart, World Wide Technologies, SSM Health and Mastercard presently use this system.
“Those industrial prospects who’re a part of Renewable Solutions may also help offset among the prices for renewables and get that profit for everybody,” stated Scott Wibbenmeyer, Ameren’s senior director of renewable enterprise growth.
The Cass County facility will double the scale of the Renewable Solutions program. The want for this system exhibits that companies are making choices based mostly on what vitality is out there, stated James Owen, government director of Renew Missouri, which advocates for renewables within the state.
“They have shareholders who anticipate them to lose sustainable vitality, from clear vitality,” Owen stated. “They’re going to go the place that is obtainable and the states and utilities are going to offer that and make that accessible, or they are not. And if they are not, these companies are going to go elsewhere.”
But Owen worries that this system might additionally ship the message that renewables are solely obtainable to huge firms with a lot of cash. He hopes future investments will problem that narrative and factors to the latest announcement that Missouri will obtain $156 million for residential photo voltaic for low-income prospects, by way of an Inflation Reduction Act program. .
Construction on the Cass County mission is predicted to be accomplished later this 12 months. Ameren can also be within the technique of including two extra massive photo voltaic amenities to its portfolio – Huck Finn is a 200 megawatt facility in Northeast Missouri and Boomtown is a 150 megawatt facility in Southern Illinois. Both are additionally anticipated to start out this 12 months.
These new photo voltaic tasks will improve Ameren’s renewable vitality manufacturing, however they’re a small a part of the utility’s complete era, greater than half of which now comes from coal.
Ameren has set a objective of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by the 12 months 2045. Its plan to achieve net-zero contains pure gasoline, a fossil-fuel that’s cleaner than coal however nonetheless emits greenhouse gases. The firm says it may well account for emissions with carbon seize or offset, in accordance with its newest built-in useful resource plan.
Earlier this 12 months, Ameren introduced plans to construct a brand new pure gasoline plant in St.
“Think concerning the renewables which are there to offer that low vitality value, after which now we have gasoline within the background to essentially make certain the reliability is there as an insurance coverage plan,” Wibbenmeyer stated.
Owen does not purchase that line of reasoning.
“I really feel forwards and backwards as a result of they have not constructed that renewable vitality infrastructure but, however they’re constructing this gasoline plant to say they will improve it,” stated Owen.
As a part of its plan, Ameren additionally expects to spend money on battery storage. Wibbenmeyer stated the corporate is presently on the lookout for the fitting location to construct. He additionally stated the corporate hopes to extend wind era within the coming years.
In complete, Ameren has dedicated to photo voltaic tasks that quantity to 900 megawatts. It has the objective of including 1800 megawatts by 2030, which can energy about 30 % of the corporate’s complete load, Wibbenmeyer stated.
Ameren can also be closing its coal-fired energy plant, Rush Island, later this 12 months. A court docket order gave the corporate a option to shut down the plant or set up air pollution controls – Ameren selected to shut the plant.