Material Handling

Georgia Power to begin third coal ash re-use project

The utility said over 8 million tons of ash will be removed from the Plant Branch site and processed for use in concrete production.
Georgia Power to begin third coal ash re-use project
(Plant Branch. Photo by Georgia Power.)

Georgia Power recently announced its third coal ash reuse project for Plant Branch in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Plant Branch began commercial operation in 1965 and was retired in 2015. Prior to retirement, the plant had four coal-fired units capable of producing 1,540 MW of electricity.

The first phase of the Plant Branch reuse project will include the construction of an ash processing facility, expected to begin by the end of 2023. The facility is expected to be online in 2026 and will process ash that is excavated from the onsite ash ponds.

Once fully operational, Georgia Power said the facility will produce approximately 600,000 dry tons of marketable ash each year. The utility anticipates that throughout the project’s 15-year duration, over 8 million tons of ash will be excavated and processed to be used in concrete production.

The project is in partnership with Eco Material Technologies. The utility has coal ash reuse projects already underway at Plant Bowen near Cartersville and Plant Mitchell near Albany.

Eco Material Technologies, a producer of sustainable cementitious materials and cement replacement products, will manage the project at Plant Branch, including the end use of the excavated coal ash.

In 2022, Georgia Power announced a similar re-use project at Plant Bowen, which is one of the largest projects of its kind in the U.S. The utility said significant construction has been completed for the ash beneficiation plant since it began last September. It added that processing equipment, such as a 1,000 ton silo and dryers, have been installed, as well as process piping around the site. Transportation of harvested ash from Plant Bowen for use in the ready-mix concrete market is expected to begin in 2024.

In 2020, Georgia Power announced the first re-use project at Plant Mitchell. The company continues to remove the stored coal ash at Plant Mitchell’s three ash ponds. Georgia Power said over the next few years, approximately two million tons of ash are expected to be removed from the site to help create Portland cement, which is used to make concrete.

Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal in power plants that, without proper management, can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water and the air. Coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic associated with cancer and various other serious health effects.

In April 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated requirements for the safe handling and disposal of coal ash from coal-fired power plants, which established technical requirements for CCR landfills and surface impoundments.

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