Full Title: The Sherco Clean Repowering: How One Community Turned a Coal Plant Into a Hub for a New Clean Economy
Author(s): Christian Fong and Becky Xilu Li
Publisher(s): Rocky Mountain Institute
Publication Date: November 8, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
As coal plants begin to retire across the country, one Minnesota coal plant has used this opportunity to create new jobs, improve local economic development, and generate clean energy that will replace the electricity once provided by coal. The Sherburne County Generating Station in Minnesota — informally known as Sherco — was able to overcome the growing electricity demand that has caused some utilities to postpone retirements of other coal plants, and an interconnection queue process that delays new clean energy projects by a median of five years, to transition into the hub of a local clean economy.
The Sherco repowering was made possible by incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a fast-track around interconnection queues, early and meaningful community engagement, and regulators and advocates who pushed for a just and clean future. It provides a nation-leading model for how stakeholders can work together to transition away from coal while protecting ratepayers, maintaining utilities’ financial outlook, and ensuring the legacy workforce and new workers alike succeed.