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Energy Business
Joe Deely
Joe Deely
Top Contributor
 · Posted in Energy Business

Southwest Power Pool(SPP) Continues to Replace Coal with Wind - 2021 Update

In 2020 , I wrote an article  called - "Southwest Power Pool(SPP) Grid Continues Move from Coal to Wind". In that article, I described the steady replacement of coal generation in the region by wind thru 2019. I mentioned that wind was catching up with coal rapidly and was coming close to surpassing it.

We now have an update showing the progress that was made last year and wind has indeed beaten out coal to become the top fuel supplier on SPP.

Looking back over the past five years wind's share of the SPP market has grown from 13.5% to 31.3% while coal has dropped from 55.1% to 30.9%.

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There is plenty of wind and solar under construction and/or in the queue for SPP so the question now becomes when does the share for fossil fuels coal/NG fall below 50%. I'm going with 2022.

 

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