Cultivate a Second Life for Decommissioned Power Plants

25 Mar 2021


News

The generation landscape for utilities is in a state of constant change. The decarbonization movement is driving difficult decisions as coal-fired power plants close amid the transition to renewable generation. But there is opportunity within that disruption.

Decommissioned power plant sites offer industrial developers a great deal of opportunity — specifically, decades of well-maintained assets. The majority of these facilities were built more than 50 years ago with access to everything they needed to operate — connections that would require extensive time and capital investments to put in place today. Rather than seeking greenfield locations, industrial developers should take a closer look at repositioning these sites.

Revealing Exceptional Value
Coal-fired power plants are sprawling sites, teeming with invaluable assets. To establish a buffer between facilities and the communities served, these plants were often placed on hundreds of acres with distribution lines and substations installed to transmit the power generated. Infrastructure to accommodate water and wastewater needs was constructed, and multimodal transportation connections were established to bring materials in and out of the plant.

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