The Iowa Environmental Council’s energy program focuses on speeding Iowa’s transition to cleaner sources of energy and away from polluting coal. Recently, the Council shared information about how Iowa remains a national leader in wind energy and that the state’s solar energy marketplace is growing.
But Iowa is also making progress retiring coal-fired generation. In fact, a recent announcement by Alliant energy that it will convert its M.L. Kapp station in Clinton to burn natural gas means that Iowa utilities have announced over one gigawatt of coal retirement in the last year. These announcements include three Iowa plants involved in a settlement over Clean Air Act violations the Sierra Club reached with MidAmerican Energy last year.
The following table includes announcements for coal plants in Iowa during the past year that will either close or convert to natural gas:
| Date | Facility | Operator | Capacity involved |
| Dec-12 | Campus coal station | Iowa State University | 31 MW |
| Jan-13 | George Neal North 1 & 2 | MidAmerican | 497 MW |
| Jan-13 | Walter Scott 1 & 2 | MidAmerican | 131 MW |
| Jan-13 | Riverside | MidAmerican | 141 MW |
| Nov-13 | Ames Electric Services Power Plant | City of Ames | 109 MW |
| Nov-13 | Fair Station | CIPCO | 63 MW |
| Jan-14 | M.L. Kapp | Alliant | 218 MW |
| Total in approximately 12 months: | 1190 MW (about 1.2 GW) | ||
Iowa Environmental Council Blog 