Los Angeles’ energy provide is now formally coal-free

Los Angeles has formally lower ties with coal. Metropolis officers say the Intermountain Energy Undertaking (IPP) in Utah – the final coal-fired energy plant supplying the US’s second-largest metropolis – went offline simply earlier than Thanksgiving.

IPP’s two large models had a mixed capability of round 1,800 megawatts (MW) when totally operational, and as lately as 2024, they nonetheless equipped round 11% of LA’s electrical energy. The plant sits in Utah’s Nice Basin area and powered Southern California for many years. Now, for the primary time, none of LA’s energy comes from coal.

There’s a political hiccup with IPP, although: the Republican-controlled Utah Legislature blocked the Intermountain Energy Company from totally retiring the coal models this yr, ordering that they’ll’t be disconnected or decommissioned. However regardless of that mandate, no consumers have stepped ahead to maintain the outdated coal models on-line.

The Los Angeles Division of Water and Energy (LADWP) is transitioning to newly constructed, hydrogen-capable producing models on the identical IPP location, a part of a modernization effort known as IPP Renewed. These new models at the moment run on pure gasoline, however they’re designed to burn a mix of pure gasoline and as much as 30% inexperienced hydrogen, and ultimately 100% inexperienced hydrogen. LADWP plans to start out including inexperienced hydrogen to the gasoline combine in 2026.

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“L.A.’s coal divestment isn’t just about discontinuing the usage of coal to energy our metropolis – it’s about constructing a clear power financial system that advantages each Angeleno. This milestone will additional speed up our transition to 100% clear power by 2035,” mentioned Mayor Karen Bass.

To succeed in that purpose, LA is investing closely in photo voltaic, wind, battery storage, and native packages that broaden rooftop photo voltaic and power effectivity.

One of many metropolis’s largest milestones was reached in August with the completion of the Eland Photo voltaic-plus-Storage Middle – an enormous mission that pairs 758 megawatts of photo voltaic with 300 MW/1,200 MWh of battery storage. It’s one of many largest solar-plus-storage vegetation within the nation, able to powering greater than 260,000 Los Angeles households. Bringing Eland on-line helped push LADWP’s energy provide previous 60% clear power in 2025.

Learn extra: In a primary, renewables generate extra energy than coal globally

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