After Abandoning Coal Plant Project, Cobb EMC Looks to Solar

By JONATHAN SHAPIRO

April 17, 2012

Earlier this year, Cobb EMC halted development of a controversial coal plant in central Georgia. The electric provider is now partnering with a group of developers who hope to build the largest solar plant in the state.  

Cobb EMC has signed a 25 year power purchase agreement with a group of solar plant developers led by the Atlanta-based Jacoby Group.

Slated for completion later this year, the plant will produce enough wattage to power 10,000 homes each year.

Earlier this year, Cobb EMC abandoned plans to help build a new coal plant near Macon, despite having poured $13 million into its development. Critics had complained the utility was wasting money on old, dirty technology.

Cobb EMC President Chip Nelson says the decision to halt its involvement with the coal plant simply came down to dollars and cents.

“We just do not need the capacity, and there were rulings from the EPA that greatly diminishes the chances of that plant being built.”

Nelson says solar, coupled with natural gas and biomass, currently makes more financial sense for the cooperative’s 170,000 members.

http://www.pba.org/post/after-abandoning-coal-plant-project-cobb-emc-looks-solar

Proposed Ben Hill Coal Plant canceled

Tifton Gazette

April 11, 2012

CNHI

FITZGERALD — Clean air advocates and environmental groups won a victory Tuesday when Power4Georgians, the only company trying to develop new coal plants in Georgia, agreed to comply with new safeguards against mercury pollution. The company also agreed to cancel the proposed Plant Ben Hill coal-fired power plant and invest $5 million in energy efficiency and renewable projects.

The Sierra Club, the Fall Line Alliance for a Clean Environment, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Ogeechee Riverkeeper, represented by GreenLaw and the Southern Environmental Law Center, successfully challenged the permit for Plant Washington issued by the Georgia Department of Environmental Protection and the settlement agreement is pending approval by each group.

If built, P4G’s Plant Washington will have to meet the much more protective emission standards for mercury and other air toxins.

Read more at: http://tiftongazette.com/local/x1789085595/Proposed-Ben-Hill-Coal-Plant-canceled

Plant Washington permits could be sold

By S. HEATHER DUNCAN - hduncan@macon.com

Georgia energy cooperatives developing Plant Washington do not intend to build the 850-megawatt coal-fired power plant at all. Instead, they will obtain environmental permits for it and then sell the permits to any interested party, according to meeting minutes from one of the cooperatives.

Those minutes, released only recently, are from a January meeting of Cobb EMC, the cooperative that originally spearheaded the Plant Washington project. At the meeting, Cobb EMC voted to pull out, leaving just four of the original 10 EMCs as members of Power4Georgians: Central Georgia EMC, Upson EMC, Washington EMC and Snapping Shoals EMC.

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2012/03/14/1946423.html#storylink=cpy

Plant Washington project in question after EMC drops support

By Jay Jones (889) 

jay.jones@rockdalecitizen.com

As of Thursday, January 26, 2012 
© Copyright 2012 Rockdale Citizen

CONYERS -- Officials with Snapping Shoals EMC said Thursday they are still committed to moving forward on a billion-dollar, coal burning power plant after Cobb EMC decided to leave the partnership on the project.

The Board of Directors for Cobb EMC voted Tuesday to end their involvement in development of the proposed Plant Washington near Sandersville in Washington County.

Cobb EMC was part of a consortium called Power4Georgians with four other EMCs, including Snapping Shoals EMC, that is backing the $2 billion coal plant. Read more at: http://www.rockdalecitizen.com/news/2012/jan/26/plant-washington-project-in-question-after-emc/

EMC backs out of plan to build coal-fired plant

by John Roach and Kim Isaza

January 25, 2012 12:49 AM

MARIETTA — Cobb EMC’s board of directors voted Tuesday to stop financing its share in a consortium intending to build a huge coal-fired power plant known as Plant Washington.  

The vote came as little surprise, as just before Christmas, Cobb EMC began seeking bids for its future power supplies, and CEO Chip Nelson confirmed to the Journal two weeks ago that the nonprofit electric cooperative was losing interest in building the 850-megawatt plant in Sandersville. 

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - EMC backs out of plan to build coal fired plant