Sustainability Corner: New England’s path to a cleaner future
After 50 years of operations, the last running coal plant in New England, Merrimack Station, is concluding all operations in 2028 (Wikimedia Commons).
After 50 years of operations, the last running coal plant in New England, Merrimack Station, is set to conclude all operations in 2028. On Mar. 28, Granite Shore Power—a New Hampshire-based company that “sells capacity and electricity to the ISO New England wholesale electricity market”—announced that they are advancing by shutting down any coal-fired generators at the Schiller Station in Portsmouth by 2025.
Once these companies have been shut down, according to The New York Times, “the plants will be converted to solar farms and battery units that can store electricity generated from offshore wind turbines along the Atlantic Coast…” This step may be a turning point for coal plants in the country as New England is only the second region to completely put an end to burning coal.
Numerous environmentalists and protestors are seemingly very pleased with this decision as they have continually, over the past five years, gone against the New Hampshire plants in a legal battle that has finally concluded. It has also been noted that for this termination of coal plants to even happen, environmentalists forced plants to compete in the electricity market against the budding solar and wind industries. According to The New York Times, “The Conservation Law Foundation, a New England legal advocacy group focused on environmental issues, had for years lobbied the state electricity regulators and lawmakers in New Hampshire to divide the company that owned both the coal power plants and the utilities that distribute the electricity into separate entities.” It is evident that there has been a lot of dedication towards the environment of New Hampshire with multiple diverse groups advocating to protect it.
It seems that even before this announcement was made, however, New England was already making massive strides toward a coal-free state. As reported by The New York Times, “In recent years, the two New Hampshire power plants have operated only intermittently during peak periods.” Thus, although environmentalists wanted the power plants gone as a whole, New Hampshire seems to be taking larger steps towards a cleaner living environment than any other state as of right now.
The “dirtiest” known fossil fuel is coal, therefore, when attempting to make active treads towards climate change, it may be crucial to know how and when to get rid of coal usage. “The dirtiest fossil fuel, coal, accounted for 59 percent of carbon emissions from electricity in 2021, although it generated less than a quarter of the electricity produced in the United States that year, according to the E.P.A.” It may be apparent that the only way to transition to a clean environment is to remove or slowly alter the way the climate and humans operate, especially with coal.
As of right now, New Hampshire is still operating with little usage of coal power. In the next coming year, as well as in 2028, however, there will be an extinction of coal in New Hampshire which may alter the environment and climate of the state.