Salt River Project will seek approval from its governing board to expand its Coolidge Generating Station, but conservationists have questions about the plan.

SRP recently ramped up its commitment to renewable energy. But clean energy cannot yet meet the Valley’s energy needs during peak demand. The expansion would add 16 natural gas turbines capable of generating power quickly.

But Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club says SRP should look for other ways to meet energy needs besides natural gas.

“It was pretty shocking actually, to see them go from having a fairly limited amount of new gas to propose 820 megawatts of new gas at the cost of almost a billion bucks,” Bahr said.

The utility says that growth in the Phoenix metropolitan area will create new demands for power.