Travel brochures in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, tout the town’s beaches on Lake Michigan as the Malibu of the Midwest. But pages of glossy photos leave out a feature of the landscape: a coal-fired power plant on the shore that will remain open until mid-2025 instead of closing this year as planned.
Alliant Energy Corp's Edgewater coal-fired plant in Sheboygan is one of at least six across the country that have announced delays or potential delays this summer to planned closures, citing concerns about energy shortages.
Renewable energy deployment, which was meant to replace these coal plants, has taken a hit in recent months because of COVID-19-related supply chain glitches. Utilities say import tariffs on solar panels imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department make it hard to keep up with robust power demand.
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