Fleet of US coal power stations coverted to solar and batteries

In the US state of Illionois, nine coal power stations are being converted into batteries, some with local solar generation.

The sites were aquired by a Texas company called Vistra in 2018, and coal burning is being terminated for a variety of reasons including running costs and legal decision over pollution.

Power station	Net coal generating capacity	Planned solar generating capacity	Planned battery output
Baldwin	1,185MW	68MW	9MW
Coffeen	closed 2019	44	6
Duck Creek	closed 2019	20	3
Hennepin	closed 2019	50	6
Kincaid	1,108	60	8
Newton	615	52	7
Edwards	585	0	37
Havana	closed 2019	0	37
Joppa	802	0	37

Figures from Vistra – Coal from this September 2020 report

While ~4GW of capacity is being removed, 300MW solar is planned, backed by batteries that can deliver 150MW.

“Vistra anticipates several projects beginning to enter commercial service starting in 2023, and all projects are expected to enter commercial service by 2025,” according to Vistra.

Electronics Weekly has requested the capacity of the batteries – in three other projects, two in California and one in Texas, the same company is planning to instal 4MWh of battery energy storage for each 1MW of power delivery. At Moss Landing in California, it has a 400MW/1,600MWh lithium-ion battery from LG Energy Solution.