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Plant Mitchell may convert to burn biomass

• Georgia Power considers changing Plant Mitchell into a facility that burns biomass.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — With 12 million tons of surplus wood biomass within a 100-mile radius, Georgia Power Co. is considering converting coal-fueled Plant Mitchell into a plant that burns wood, company officials said Friday.

Part of a Diverse Energy Plan filed Friday with the Georgia Public Service Commission that also includes the addition of two nuclear generators at Plant Vogtle, Georgia Power is in the “final stages” of evaluating the conversion at Plant Mitchell, officials said.

“The utilities do not turn a blind eye to the environment, and this is proof of that,” said Jay Smith, Albany area manager for Georgia Power.

Smith, who also serves as chair of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, said the same as he joined other Georgia chamber officials Tuesday in a fight to overturn a recent Fulton County Superior Court ruling halting Longleaf Energy’s construction of a coal-fired plant in Early County.

The Early County plant is not a Georgia Power facility, but the court’s ruling would negatively impact all power plants and economic development in the state, Smith said.

In Albany, two older coal units at Plant Mitchell were retired several years ago and a third, a 155-megawatt coal-fired unit, is not competitive with Georgia Power’s standard coal units that produce 600-1,000 megawatts of energy, he said.

“This one is sitting here, it’s past its prime and it’s time to do something with it,” Smith said.

If approved, the conversion will create 50-75 jobs in forestry and transportation associated with gathering and transferring the biomass to the plant, he said.

The use of biomass reduces sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions, plus the renewable energy source takes up carbon in the air as it grows, Smith said.

The plant is located on 243 acres along the Flint River near the Dougherty-Mitchell County line.

Burned in the retrofitted plant would be woody plants, treetops, needles and other parts left behind on the forest floor after timber is harvested, said Lynn Wallace, a spokesperson for Georgia Power.

The plant would require 1 million of the 12 million tons of surplus wood biomass left behind during the harvest of timberland within 100 miles of Plant Mitchell, she said.

If approved, the conversion of the plant’s largest unit, a coal-fired unit, to biomass, would begin in April 2010 and take about 14 months, she said.

Piles of coal at Plant Mitchell will be replaced by piles of biomass, transported by truck to the site over a new road the company has considered building, she said.

At full load, the biomass-fueled unit will generate approximately 96 megawatts of energy, less than the coal-fired unit but likely to be operational at all times, Wallace said.

“Another reason that we feel it’s important right now to look into converting Plant Mitchell is the price of coal and natural gas have gone up dramatically,” she said.

The plant will be the first wood biomass plant in Georgia and one of the largest in the United States, Wallace said.

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