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Oct. 21—A lot of people have been curious about what's going on at the Georgia Power Company's old Harllee Branch Plant near the Baldwin-Putnam county line. Motorists who pass by the old plant, whose smoke stack no longer stands tall in the skyline, have been wondering because they have seen lots of activity ongoing there for the past several months.
Now we know.
Georgia Power Company officials announced earlier this week a new initiative in its strategic beneficial reuse of coal ash. Georgia Power Co., through a partnership with Eco Material Technologies, will continue to research and identify opportunities to remove and beneficially reuse or recycle coal ash that can in turn become beneficial to customers, as well as communities.
The aim is help reduce space needed for landfills, as well as to offset costs of coal ash pond closures, according to a press release from the company.
The newest initiative is the company's third beneficial reuse project. Additional projects currently are underway at Plant Bowen near Cartersville, and Plant Mitchell near Albany.
Plant Harllee Branch, which opened in 1965 and ceased operations in 2015, was a coal-fired power plant. The plant was actually named after Harllee Branch Jr., who served as president of the company for a number of years.
The first phase of the Plant Branch beneficial reuse project will include the construction of an ash processing facility, expected to begin "later this year," according to the press release. The facility is expected to go online in 2026 and will process ash that is excavated from the onsite ash ponds. Once fully operational, the facility will produce approximately 600,000 dry tons of marketable ash each year. In total, throughout the project's 15-year duration, over 8 million tons of ash will be excavated and processed to be used in the concrete ready-mix market.
"At Georgia Power, our team across the state is committed to meeting the energy needs of our customers today, while investing in innovative ways to continue to deliver clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy for future generations of Georgians," according to Jennifer McNelly, vice president of Environmental Affairs for Georgia Power Company. "We work every day to be innovators in the industry, reduce our environmental impact, and find ways to deliver additional value for our customers, and with this latest beneficial reuse project at Plant Branch, we are doing just that. In addition to reducing the amount of ash going to the landfill and complementing our closure plans, projects such as this bring additional jobs and positive economic impact for the local community."