BELMONT, N.C. — For the first time since 2020, a coal-fired power plant is closing down in North Carolina.
The Allen Steam Station, which is set to retire at the end of 2024, has been generating power for the Charlotte area since 1957, however, in recent years it has slowed down, serving more during peak power periods rather than as a “baseload” power plant.
It’s the first in a series of coal-power retirements set out in Duke Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan, which lays out the utility’s plan for meeting North Carolina’s mandated emissions goals. Duke Energy must reduce its emissions by 70% of 2005 levels and be operating at net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. As a part of that plan, all of Duke’s remaining coal-fired plants will retire or convert entirely to natural gas by the end of 2035.
Before retirement, however, Duke Energy must build replacement generation to keep the power grid stable.
“At some retiring coal plants, we’re building nuclear, at some we’re building natural gas,” Duke Energy spokesman Bill Norton, said.
Natural gas is playing a large role.
New gas-fired plants will be built to replace the coal-fired plants at the Marshall and Roxboro sites and before the Allen Steam Station in Belmont closes, a new natural gas turbine is coming online in Lincoln County.
“You need something that can fire up quickly to fill that gap. Coal was never really designed to do that. It took, you know, the better part of a half of a day to get to full speed,” Norton said.
Duke’s reliance on natural gas, another fossil fuel that has significant carbon emissions, has its critics. Munashe Magarira, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, spoke out against the plan to build a new natural gas plant at the Marshall site, claiming the new plant would not significantly reduce carbon emissions and could increase pollution from VOCs.
“You do not need natural gas to retire coal. There are other alternatives, particularly solar and other renewables that are paired with storage that can do the same sorts of jobs, both providing sort of around the clock, or closer around the clock energy,” he said.
A significant exception to the natural gas buildout at former coal sites is Duke Energy’s plan for Belews Creek in Stokes County. There, Duke Energy plans to install a new type of nuclear energy generation called small modular reactors. The utility aims to have that power online by the mid-2030s, though opponents are skeptical of the timeline and potential cost, given delays other recent nuclear projects have faced.
As for the Allen Steam Station, because the site itself contains nearly 20 million tons of coal ash, the largest site in the state, most of the power plant’s land will be converted into a series of lined landfills to safely store the waste so it cannot contaminate groundwater. With the remaining land, Duke Energy plans to build 167 MW of battery storage.
“That’s actually the same size as unit 1 the last retiring coal unit at this site,” Norton said. “[Batteries] take up less land, you don’t have large amounts of personnel involved with them.”
The next plant slated for retirement is the Mayo Steam Station in Person County. Operations will end before the end of 2030.
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