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Stories focused on energy & environment topics throughout the state of Kansas.

Westar Energy Expands Renewable Energy Portfolio

Westar Energy is adding to its renewable energy portfolio through a new wind farm, while retiring two older natural gas plants in Wichita. KMUW's Deborah Shaar has the story.

Westar announced Tuesday that it plans to buy wind energy from a new wind farm going up in two western Kansas counties.

The Cedar Bluff wind farm is expected to be running by the end of 2015. It’ll provide Westar with 200 megawatts of electricity.

That will bring Westar Energy’s renewable energy portfolio to nearly 1100 megawatts, meeting all requirements of the state’s renewable energy standard.

Later this year, Westar plans to shut down two small natural gas units at the Murray Gill Energy Center in south Wichita.

The company says the units have been operating for more than 60 years and its no longer cost effective to maintain them.

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.