One of Vectren's 2-megawatt solar arrays consisting of approximately 8,000 ground-mounted, fixed-tilt solar panels on a 15-acre site near the northwest corner of Oak Hill Cemetery on Morgan Avenue. Each site will supply enough renewable energy to power more than 400 homes a year. (Photo: MaCabe Brown / Courier & Press)
EVANSVILLE — Developing alternative energy sources will be one of the ways CenterPoint Energy achieves the goal of reducing its carbon emissions 70 percent by 2035, which it announced Monday.
The emissions reduction announcement comes as electric utility Vectren, a CenterPoint company, updates its 20-year power generation plan.
In addition to alternative energy sources, CenterPoint said it will work with its natural gas suppliers to lower methane emissions.
CenterPoint's new carbon policy also calls for a 20-30 percent net reduction in carbon emissions from customers' natural gas usage through promoting energy efficiency and conservation. The reductions would be from 2005 emissions levels.
In an article about CenterPoint's impending carbon reduction goals published last week by S&P Global Market Intelligence, CenterPoint's interim CEO John Somerhalder said "continuing to enhance our generation mix supporting Southern Indiana" would be part of the reductions.
Vectren is developing its next Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which utilities are required to submit to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Agency. The company has issued an "all-source" request for proposals (RFP) to supply up to 700 megawatts of power. Indiana law requires utilities to update these plans every three years with input from the public.
The last of four public meetings in the process will be on April 20. At that time, the utility will reveal its preferred mix of power generation moving forward, said Natalie Hedde, a company spokeswoman. The IRP will be submitted to the IURC on May 1.
"Our hope is that as part of this emissions reduction goal, CenterPoint's intention is to phase out their coal fleet in Southwest Indiana within this IRP process and replace those plants with affordable renewable energy," said Wendy Bredhold, Senior Campaign Representative for Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign in Indiana and Kentucky.
Vectren has previously said it intends to close its A.B. Brown plant in Posey County and most of its F.C. Culley plant in Warrick County by 2023.
Bredhold noted that in Northwest Indiana, the NIPSCO electric utility has said it will save its customers $4 billion by retiring all of its coal plants and replacing them with wind, solar, energy storage and energy efficiency.
"Vectren customers pay the highest electric rates in the state, and at a time when Evansville residents are facing increasing costs across the board, Vectren should make every effort to reduce its costs for customers while responding to the call from residents and city leaders to power our community with renewables," Bredhold said.
In a CenterPoint news release Monday, Angila Retherford, CenterPoint Energy's vice president of Environmental Affairs and Corporate Sustainability, said:
"There are significant benefits to transitioning to cleaner energy beyond just environmental. By investing in new projects that lead to good-paying, green jobs, CenterPoint Energy is helping to support local communities, while showing how energy companies can be a partner in building America's clean energy future."
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