On June 20, San Antonio Mayor Joaquin Castro announced that not only will the city shut down its 900-megawatt Deely coal-fired power plant by 2018, but it plans to replace the power with a combination of renewable energy—including solar—and energy efficiency.
Roughly 1,000 new jobs will be created by this move.
"This is a victory for clean energy and community health, as well as an example of some amazing long-term grassroots work by local residents," says Mary Anne Hitt, the Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign National Director. CPS Energy, the municipal utility, has already invested in a 14-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant that opened last year, and made a commitment to 20 percent renewable energy by 2020.
"This was a huge effort driven largely by the Alamo Group of the Sierra Club and other key partners like the SEED Coalition and Public Citizen," says Eva Hernandez also of the Beyond Coal Campaign.
The Deely plant will be the first coal-fired power plant in Texas to close, and marks a shift in philosophy - from supplying energy at the lowest cost to providing competitively priced energy with environmental considerations.
Read more about it on Forbes.com.
