WEC Energy Group, Inc. (We Energies) is committed to working with individuals and businesses who want to go solar says Amy Jahns, senior communications specialist at We Energies. According to her, We Energies has more than 300 small commercial and industrial customers and more than 1,000 residential customers with solar systems. Numbers are increasing year after year.
Jahns adds that We Energies wants to reduce carbon emissions, preserve fuel diversity and reduce costs to customers. “We’re really focusing on retiring our older, less efficient, coal-fueled units, building advanced technology natural gas units and investing in cost-effective, zero-carbon, renewable generation, like utility-scale solar.” We Energies closed the Pleasant Prairie coal-burning plant in November 2017, and in recent years converted the Valley Power Plant in Downtown Milwaukee and the Port Washington Power Plant from coal to natural gas.
In 2017, We Energies produced its electricity from three sources: 26% from carbon-free sources (including 5% from solar, wind, hydro and biomass); 53% from coal; 21% from natural gas, according to Jahns. Besides solar, its renewables include the two biggest wind farms in the state, a number of hydroelectric plants on the Michigan-Wisconsin border, as well as biomass. “Utility-scale solar in the past few years has increased in efficiency, and prices have dropped by 70%, making it a really cost-effective option for our customers,” Jahns says. “We are very focused right now on utility-scale solar.”
By 2030, We Energies wants its energy mix to be 34% from carbon-free sources, 29% from coal and 37% from natural gas. “We are still continuing with our plan to reduce emissions by 80%, and we are well on our way to doing that,” Jahns says.
