U.S. power company Exelon (NYSE: EXC) said it plans to invest nearly $5 billion in clean energy projects starting this year with a goal of eliminating the equivalent of its 2001 carbon footprint by 2020.
The projects in Illinois, Pennsylvania and other states include energy-efficiency and smart grid programs, renewable energy investments, and increased output at Exelon’s nuclear plants.
Exelon’s plans for investing nearly $5 billion by 2015 in state and local economies will result in new material and equipment orders, engineering and construction contracts, and professional and technical service agreements. Exelon said these investments will help support thousands of clean energy jobs, both at Exelon and its more than 5,000 suppliers.
Exelon said it is now halfway to achieving its goal to eliminate the equivalent of its 2001 carbon footprint by reducing, offsetting or displacing more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year by 2020.
Key initiatives under the Exelon 2020 plan include:
- Energy-efficiency programs for ComEd and PECO customers and in Exelon’s own operations, including cutting energy use at company facilities by 23%
- Increasing output of Exelon’s nuclear plants by 100 MW since 2008, with additional future uprates planned
- Investments in renewables, including purchasing a $900 million, 735 MW wind operation from John Deere and building a 10 MW solar plant on Chicago’s South Side
- Smart Grid initiatives in Chicago and Philadelphia designed to give customers information and tools to better manage their energy use, starting with the deployment of 720,000 smart meters
- Retiring four inefficient, carbon-intensive fossil fuel units in Pennsylvania that have a combined capacity of 933 MW
"With its Exelon 2020 strategy, Exelon has staked out a position as an industry leader in addressing climate change," said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, a coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organizations focused on sustainability challenges. "The company has shown that it is economically feasible to make major clean energy investments that have a real, tangible impact on greenhouse gas emissions, and we encourage other utilities to follow suit."
Under Exelon 2020, the company conducts an annual analysis of the most cost-effective ways to reduce carbon emissions and the carbon prices needed to make these projects economic. This year, Exelon expanded its analysis to take a broader view on how the industry may respond, especially in light of upcoming EPA rules designed to drastically reduce power plant air pollution, and found that participants in PJM–the 13-state mid-Atlantic power market in which Exelon operates–can cut about 60 million metric tons of carbon emissions per year through energy efficiency, nuclear uprates, coal plant retirements and new natural gas generation
"The question facing the United States is not whether it should reduce air pollution and carbon emissions, but how to do so affordably, especially in light of current economic conditions," said John W. Rowe, chairman and CEO of Exelon "The pending suite of EPA regulations will help drive the transition to a cleaner energy future."
Exelon Corporation is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities with more than $17 billion in annual revenues. A complete 2010 update on the Exelon 2020 business and environmental strategy is available at the link below.
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