Georgia Power announced today the latest initiative in its strategic beneficial reuse of coal ash – a new project planned for Plant Branch near Milledgeville, Georgia, in partnership with Eco Material Technologies. The company continues to research and identify opportunities to remove and beneficially reuse, or recycle, coal ash to benefit customers and communities, helping reduce space needed for landfills and offsetting costs of coal ash pond closures. This is the company’s third beneficial reuse project, including projects currently underway at Plant Bowen, near Cartersville, and Plant Mitchell, near Albany.
Plant Branch opened in 1965 and served Georgia Power customers safely and reliably for decades before being retired in 2015. 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. The facility is expected to be 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,” said Jennifer McNelly, vice president of Environmental Affairs for Georgia Power. “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 a landfill and complementing our closure plans, projects such as this bring…
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