Georgia Power is expanding its coal ash beneficial reuse program to Plant Branch near Milledgeville. Working in partnership with Pennsylvania-based Eco Material Technologies, Georgia Power expects to start construction later this year on an ash processing facility at Plant Branch, a coal-fired power plant the company retired back in 2015.
The facility is expected to be online in 2026 and will process ash that is excavated from the onsite ash ponds. Once fully operational, it will produce about 600,000 dry tons of marketable ash each year. The coal ash reuse projects stem from Georgia Power’s plan to close all 29 of its ash ponds.
Ash is to be excavated and removed from 19 of those ponds, while the other 10 are due to be closed in place. Environmental advocates have complained that some of the ponds that will remain contain coal ash in contact with groundwater in violation of a 2015 federal rule.
