The Tennessee Valley Authority said Tuesday it is shutting down a large coal plant in the state and replacing much of the power with natural gas, angering environmentalists who said the facility should use low-carbon electricity.
TVA said it would replace the Kingston Fossil Plant with an “energy complex” anchored by the 1,500-megawatt gas generator and some solar and battery storage. The move comes after EPA called the public power utility’s environmental review of the coal plant “inadequate” last week.
In a statement, TVA CEO Jeff Lyash said retiring the coal-fired units and “replacing them with technology that is more reliable, more resilient, and cleaner is not an easy decision, but it’s the right thing to do for our energy security going forward.”
“Achieving a carbon-free energy future won’t be easy. There is no one answer to achieving our nation’s decarbonization goals,” Lyash said.
