Minnesota Power Announces Plan for 100% Carbon-Free Energy by 2050

Minnesota Power is serious about providing carbon-free energy, and it now has a plan that should accomplish that goal by 2050.

Not too long ago Minnesota Power announced that it was delivering 50% renewable energy to its customers and is now sharing its plan to get to 80% by 2035 by achieving coal-free operations by increasing the use of wind and solar. Minnesota Power says that it also wants to "invest in a resilient and flexible transmission and distribution grid."

ALLETE President and CEO Bethany Owen says in a press release, “As a clean energy leader, we are meeting the challenge of climate change with a reliable energy supply while keeping costs affordable for customers in this region."

In the Integrated Resource Plan that Minnesota Power plans to submit to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on February 1st, they outline the specific steps they are taking to get to 70% renewable energy by 2030:

• Adding an estimated 400new megawatts of wind and solar energy.
• Retiring Boswell Energy Center Unit 3 by 2030.(335MWs)
• Transforming Minnesota Power’s Boswell Energy Center Unit 4 (468MWs) to be coal-free by 2035.
• Investing in a modern, flexible transmission and distribution grid.

Minnesota Power says that if they can achieve an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2035 compared to 2005, they would meet the state’s goal for greenhouse gas reductions 15 years ahead of schedule.

Since 2013 Minnesota Power says it has either closed or converted seven of their nine coal-fired plants, adding nearly 900 megawatts of renewable energy to serve their 145,000 customers in the 26,000-square-mile area of service in northeastern Minnesota.