Southern Company Accelerates Clean Energy Transition With Expansion of Zero-Carbon Resources and Bold Net-Zero Goals
Originally published in Southern Company's 2023 Sustainability Summary
Providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy to customers is fundamental to Southern Company’s mission. Our growing portfolio of zero-carbon resources plays an integral role in helping us meet these objectives. Our greenhouse gas reduction goals are to achieve 50% reduction from 2007 levels by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050, consistent with the commitments of the Paris Agreement. Our goals are specific to Scope 1 emissions as they comprise approximately 70% of our GHG emissions profile, and we have the most direct ability to influence our emissions reduction trajectory through infrastructure transition. Reducing Scope 3 emissions, which represent approximately 30% of our GHG profile, is also an area of focus across our electric and natural gas utilities.
Effective Execution of Decarbonization Strategies
- Through 2023, Southern Company has reduced Scope 1 GHG emissions by 49% relative to our baseline year of 2007.
- We completed the expansion of Plant Vogtle in 2024 – Units 3 and 4 are the first new nuclear units to be constructed in the U.S. in more than 30 years – and the Vogtle site is now the largest generator of clean energy in the United States.
- Since 2007, we have reduced the number of units in our coal generating fleet from 66 to 15 and expect to further reduce our coal fleet by the mid-2030s.
- By 2030, we expect to have over 20,000 megawatts (MW) of renewable and storage resources in our portfolio, a 4X increase since 2015.2
- Southern Company Gas is deploying a wide range of solutions to reduce GHG emissions, including enhanced leak detection and repair technologies, renewable natural gas programs and collaborative efforts to advance GHG reductions across the natural gas value chain.
Developing Durable Solutions for the Future
Electric Utilities
We continue to transform our business as we build a diverse energy portfolio, develop innovative programs and services for our customers and research new clean energy technologies. Since issuing our Implementation and Action Toward Net Zero report in 2020, which outlined our goal of achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2050, we have made significant progress in reducing GHG emissions across our business.
Over the past five years, energy industry fundamentals have changed meaningfully, including fuel price volatility, rapid projected demand growth in our southeastern service territories, supply chain dynamics and legislative incentives, among others. In addition, the issuance of new federal environmental regulations in April 2024 impacts the energy mix needed to reliably serve our customers beyond this decade. As we strive to effectively meet our customers' future needs, we continue to enhance our planning processes, which routinely consider a host of factors, including environmental impacts, safety, reliability, resilience and affordability, as well as broader social and economic community impacts. Infrastructure decisions made as part of our planning and regulatory processes impact our ongoing evaluation of Southern Company’s GHG reduction goals.
As we look to the future and aim to reach net zero by 2050, many of the factors noted above will influence the energy resource mix needed to serve customers. While the proportion of each resource may shift over time, the following key tenets remain consistent given our view of current and emerging technologies and economic attributes:
- Continued assessment of coal-fired generating assets
- Thoughtful use of natural gas
- Further growth in our portfolio of clean energy resources
- Enhanced demand response, energy efficiency initiatives and distributed energy resources (DER)
- Negative-carbon solutions
- Continued investment in R&D of emerging clean energy technologies
Another critical element of our net-zero transition will be continued investment in transmission and distribution systems to support resiliency, reliability and the intermittent nature of renewable resources. As we propose and seek approval of new generating resources and energy-saving programs, our plans also include the related infrastructure necessary to deliver the continued growth in clean energy to customers.
Federal Regulatory Compliance
In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued new reporting requirements and regulations that we expect will likely impact the electric utility industry. Southern Company and our operating companies have engaged in constructive dialogue with each agency during the rulemaking processes through company meetings, industry meetings and formal comment processes. Our advocacy has centered on ensuring an orderly transition to net zero that also prioritizes reliability and affordability for our customers.
Subject matter experts across our company continue to evaluate the rules, including the opportunities and challenges to our mission of providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy. In the coming months, we expect our planning, regulatory and compliance teams to refine scenarios that incorporate potential impacts of the new rules and other factors, such as increasing customer demand. Our leadership, with oversight by the Board of Directors, will review and make determinations around infrastructure investment, retirement and conversion options that we can propose to our state regulatory commissions through established resource planning processes.
Spotlight: Southern Power’s Expanding Solar Footprint
In April 2024, Southern Power announced its 30th solar site, the South Cheyenne Solar Facility, entered commercial operation, becoming Southern Power's first site in Wyoming. With this addition, Southern Power's operational footprint expanded to 15 states. Southern Power also announced the 180 MW expansion of the Millers Branch Solar Facility. With the addition of South Cheyenne and the expansion at Millers Branch, Southern Power’s renewables portfolio will total 5,450 MW across 30 solar and 15 wind facilities. These projects align with Southern Power’s overall business strategy of strengthening its wholesale business by acquiring and developing generating assets that are covered by long-term contracts with counterparties with strong credit support.
“We are thrilled to announce the expansion of our Millers Branch Solar Facility. This renewable energy expansion represents a clean, innovative solution to help a diverse group of customers achieve meaningful progress on their own sustainability objectives. It’s one more example of how Southern Power is building the future of energy and meeting the evolving needs of our customers and communities.”
– Robin Boren, President, Southern Power
