Barry Steam Plant

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Barry Steam Plant was a 1770.7-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station owned and operated by Southern Company's Alabama Power near Bucks, Alabama.

Location

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Plant Data

• Owner: Alabama Power Co.
• Parent Company: Southern Company
• Plant Nameplate Capacity: 1,770.7 MW (Megawatts)
• Units and In-Service Dates: Unit 1: 153.1 MW (1954), Unit 2: 153.1 MW (1954), Unit 3: 272.0 MW (1959), Unit 4: 403.7 MW (1969), Unit 5: 788.8 MW (1971)
• Location: U.S. Highway 43, Bucks, AL 36512
• GPS Coordinates: 31.005908, -88.011383
• Technology: Subcritical (unit 4) Supercritical (unit 5)
• Coal type: Bituminous
• Coal Consumption:
• Coal Source:
• Number of Employees:
• Unit Retirements: Units 1 & 2 are converted to natural gas, Unit 3 has been retired.

Conversion to Natural Gas

In January 2014 Alabama Power said it plans for its older, units 1-3 at the Barry coal plant to be running on natural gas in 2016. The company said the Barry units will lose the capability to use coal going forward. The company also plans to add gas capability to the four 255-megawatt Units 1-4 at its Gaston Steam Plant in Alabama by 2016 so they can run primarily on gas going forward.

The company ceased using coal at units 1 and 2 of Barry in April 2015, which will be available on a limited basis with gas as the fuel source. Southern Co is debating whether to convert unit 3 to gas, close it, or keep it as a coal plant.

According to the EIA 860 database from 2017 unit 3 retired in august of 2015.

Emissions Data

• 2006 CO₂ Emissions: 12,449,918 tons
• 2006 SO₂ Emissions: 52,621 tons
• 2006 SO₂ Emissions per MWh:
• 2006 NO_x Emissions: 16,800 tons
• 2005 Mercury Emissions: 881 lb.

Coal Waste Site

• Barry Steam Plant Ash Pond

Barry ranked 13th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste

In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill. The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.

Barry Steam Plant ranked number 13 on the list, with 2,350,349 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

Southern Company abandons carbon capture and storage project

In December 2009, Southern Company received a $295 million grant from the Department of Energy to retrofit 160MW at the Barry Steam Plant for carbon capture. The company plants to compress and transport the CO₂ through a pipeline and store up to one million metric tons per year in deep saline formations. The company will also explore using the captured CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery.

However, on March 1, 2010 it was announced that Southern Company had abandoned its $700 million carbon capture project at the Barry Steam Plant. Company spokesperson Steve Higginbottom said, "It's really about the efficient deployment of resources. Really, we felt it was in the best interest of our customers and shareholders to not move forward with the expanded CCS project at Plant Barry." He added, "The current economic conditions also factored into the decision."

Later in September 2010, Southern Company reported that they had captured carbon emissions at its Yates Steam Generating Plant for the first time and then released it during a pilot project. The technology uses a solvent to remove carbon gas from emissions. The company stated that while the they released the captured carbon at Yates, it will be catching carbon and storing it underground at its Barry Steam Plant in 2011..

Other coal waste sites

To see a nationwide list of over 350 coal waste sites in the United States, click here. To see a listing of coal waste sites in a particular state, click on the map:

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Citizen Groups

See also Alabama and coal

• Black Warrior Riverkeeper
• GASP (formerly Alabama First)

Articles and Resources

Sources

• Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005, Energy Information Administration, accessed Jan. 2009.
• Environmental Integrity Project, "Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants", July 2007.
• Facility Registry System, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed Jan. 2009.

Related SourceWatch Articles

• Existing U.S. Coal Plants
• Coal plant conversion projects
• Alabama and coal
• Southern Company
• United States and coal
• Global warming

External Articles

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