Plant Washington Coal Plant Discussed in Meeting Tonight

The Georgia Environmental Protection division will hold a public forum tonight (Thursday) to discuss the proposed Plant Washington coal plant near Sandersville in eastern Georgia. The forum is an informational meeting, in a question and answer format. It begins at 6:30 p.m. at Sandersville Technical College, in the auditorium there.

Ga. Power applying for biomass plant permits

Plant Mitchell. (Dave Bender)

Georgia Power Company wants to trade in coal for woodchips to fuel a power plant near Albany. The company is investing in bio mass technology with the hope of saving money.

While bio mass is considered a cleaner fuel source compared to coal, Georgia Power believes it could also be a cheaper solution for producing electricity.

Plant Mitchell turbine area: only one of the facilities three yellow turbines is operational. (Dave Bender)

On a tour of Plant Mitchell in nearby Albany, manager Ronnie Walston explains that Georgia’s millions of acres of forests could be used to power energy producing turbines.

Plant Mitchell water boilers. Coal or wood biomass is heated at the bottom. (Dave Bender)

Currently, the company is experimenting by burning wood chips and similar waste products instead of coal to heat water in the plant's three–story-high boilers. Walston, shouting over the roar of steam turbines in the background:

“The generator takes high-pressure steam from the boiler, turns the generator which delivers 155 megawatts of electrical energy to the grid in Georgia.”

The generator consumes a whopping 62-tons of coal an hour.

Plant Mitchell: Rail cars delivering coal at a siding. (Dave Bender)

After the conversion, the plant would require 160-trucks a day to haul in a million tons of wood chips. While using wood cuts the electrical output by a third, it’s enough to power an estimated 90,000 homes.

Walston says the conversion would keep the plant - which now buys its coal from Appalachia - running for years to come and help the local economy:

“…those dollars now flow out of state. Now, with the biomass – that’s currently not being utilized – will be purchased and consumed here within a 100-mile radius of Plant Mitchell, and so those dollars that previously went out of state will be staying in-state and will create some 50-to-75 jobs in the fuel-harvesting area.”

If successful, the bio mass conversion could happen in 2012.

Control panel at Plant Mitchell. (Dave Bender)

The plan still needs approval from the Environmental Protection Division and the Public Service Commission. A recent study by Oregon state officials show bio mass can cost up to 6.7 per kilowatt hour to produce.

Forbes Magazine ranks Georgia as the third best state in the nation for alternative energy from biomass. The article referenced the amount of privately owned forest in Georgia, more than any other state in the country, as a reason for the state’s ranking. The ranking comes on the heels of CNBC’s including Georgia in the top ten and second in the Southeast in its annual rankings of “America’s Top States for Business.”

EPA estimates show Georgian's pay 6.5 cents for coal produced electricity. The cost of biomass is expected to drop as technologies improve and more plants come online.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about biomass and related alternative energy solutions.

Georgia Power submits nuke request

Today Georgia Power asked for state approval on two new nuclear reactors. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that Georgia Power's parent company, Southern Company, submitted a request to the Public Service Commission today. The reactors would go up at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, south of Augusta. Georgia Power also submitted a proposal to convert a coal-fired plant near Albany to burn renewable biomass wood.

Coal power plant construction challenged in court

Environmental groups and a power company will clash in court today over a coal-fired power plant that could be built in southwest Georgia’s Early County.

Environmentalists ask the judge to reconsider the state’s decision to issue an air pollution permit to the power company. They say the permit doesn’t regulate the plant’s carbon dioxide emissions.

The majority of scientists say carbon dioxide is the leading cause of global warming.

The case is among the first challenges against coal-fired plants filed since the Supreme Court’s April 2007 ruling that carbon dioxide could be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Plans for new coal-fired plant draw protest

A new coal-fired power plant could soon be on the horizon in middle-Georgia. A consortium of 10 electric cooperatives says it plans to build a state-of-the-art coal-fired plant near Sandersville, in Washington County. The group says state population growth is outpacing its ability to provide power. A spokesman for the group says coal is an affordable and reliable energy source, and that construction of the plant will boost the local economy.

The plan for a coal-fired plant is unwelcome news for one state environmental group. Justine Thompson, Executive Director of GreenLaw, says the consortium’s 700,000 customers actually stand to lose by the deal: “Coal-fired power plants may be cheap and profitable for the companies that use them; but they are not cheap and profitable for the people who have to breathe the air.” She says coal is one of the dirtiest energy forms and severely impacts the state’s air and water quality. Her group plans to evaluate the proposal for the plant before considering legal options.

Power company officials hope to have the plant completed by 2013. Last week, a state judge approved the permit for a coal-burning power plant in Early County – it will be the state’s first in 20 years. Thompson and other environmental groups plan to appeal.

State gives final permit for coal-fired power plant

Georgia environmentalists are decrying the state’s final go-ahead for a coal plant in Early County west of Albany. Environment Georgia says each year the plant will emit greenhouses gases equal to 1.3 million cars. Greenhouse gases are blamed for global warming. Just this week, President George Bush ordered aides to draft regulations on greenhouse gases.

But the proposed plant does not meet national standards on pollution control, according to Environment Georgia’s Policy Manager Jennette Gayer. She says, "If you look at the permit that’s been issued this really is the dirtiest, old school, coal-fired power plant. They’re using standard technology that’s dirtier than plants proposed around the country. So we’re looking at ways that if we have to have a coal-fired power plant, make sure it’s the cleanest possible coal-fired power plant."

Environmentalists also say that while Georgia will suffer the brunt of the plant’s pollution, most of the power it produces could go out of state. The Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest plans to spearhead the legal efforts to stop the plant.

Proposed coal plant irks environmentalists

Environmentalists rallied in downtown Atlanta on Wednesday, to protest construction of a new coal fired power plant in southwest Georgia.

New Jersey based LS Power Group has received a permit to construct the state’s newest coal fired power plant Southwest Georgia's Early County.

Activists say coal fired plants release particulate matter into the
environment, which may lead to higher rates of heart and lung disease.

Jeanette Gayer with Environment Georgia, says pollution fallout levels should be enough to convince lawmakers that Georgia doesn’t need another coal fired power plant.

“This is a gigantic dinosaur of a plant. It will produce 9-million tons of global warming pollutants every single year. Which is the equivalent of putting another 1.3 million cars and trucks on the roads. This is a 13% increase in the amount of global warming pollution output in the state of Georgia.*

Construction has not yet begun on the about 1,200 megawatts Early County plant.

However, activists say the facility is slated to come on line later this year and will provide electrical power primarily to northern
Florida.