Barry Steam Plant
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Barry Steam Plant is an operating power station of at least 3342-megawatts (MW) in Bucks, Mobile, Alabama, United States with multiple units, some of which are not currently operating.
Location
Table 1: Project-level location details
| Plant name | Location | Coordinates (WGS 84) |
|---|---|---|
| Barry Steam Plant | Bucks, Mobile, Alabama, United States | 31.006553, -88.008753 (exact) |
Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):
- Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit 4, Unit 5, Unit 6, Unit 7, Unit 8: 31.006553, -88.008753
Project Details
Table 2: Unit-level details
| Unit name | Status | Fuel(s) | Capacity (MW) | Technology | CHP | Start year | Retired year | Emergency/Backup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1, timepoint 1 | Retired | coal: bituminous[1] | 153.1 | subcritical | no[2] | 1954 | 2015[3] | False |
| Unit 1, timepoint 2 | Operating[2] | fossil gas: natural gas[2] | 153.1[4] | steam turbine[2] | no[2] | 2015[5] | – | False |
| Unit 2, timepoint 1 | Retired | coal: bituminous[1] | 153.1 | subcritical | no[2] | 1954 | 2015[3] | False |
| Unit 2, timepoint 2 | Operating[2] | fossil gas: natural gas[2] | 153.1[4] | steam turbine[2] | no[2] | 2015[5] | – | False |
| Unit 3 | Retired | coal: bituminous[1] | 272 | subcritical | no[2] | 1959 | 2015[3] | False |
| Unit 4, timepoint 1 | Retired[6] | coal: bituminous[1] | 403.7 | subcritical | – | 1969 | 2022[6][7] | False |
| Unit 4, timepoint 2 | Operating[8][7][9] | fossil gas: natural gas[6] | 403.7[10] | steam turbine[10] | – | 2022[6][8] | –[7] | False |
| Unit 5 | Operating | coal: bituminous[1] | 788.8 | supercritical | – | 1971 | 2028 (planned)[6] | False |
| Unit 5, timepoint 2 | Pre-construction[11] | fossil gas: natural gas[11] | 785[11] | steam turbine[11] | – | – | – | False |
| Unit 6 | Operating[2] | fossil gas: natural gas[2] | 535[4] | combined cycle[2] | no[2] | 2000[2] | – | False |
| Unit 7 | Operating[2] | fossil gas: natural gas[2] | 535[4] | combined cycle[2] | no[2] | 2000[2] | – | False |
| Unit 8 | Operating[12][4][13][14][15] | fossil gas: natural gas[16] | 774[4] | combined cycle[16] | no[16] | 2023[4][12] | – | False |
CHP is an abbreviation for Combined Heat and Power. It is a technology that produces electricity and thermal energy at high efficiencies. Coal units track this information in the Captive Use section when known.
Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details
| Unit name | Owner | Parent |
|---|---|---|
| Unit 1, timepoint 1 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 1, timepoint 2 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 2, timepoint 1 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 2, timepoint 2 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 3 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 4, timepoint 1 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 4, timepoint 2 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 5 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 5, timepoint 2 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 6 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 7 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
| Unit 8 | Alabama Power Co [100%] | Southern Co [100.0%] |
Unit-level fuel conversion details:
Unit 1: Converted from coal to fossil gas in 2015.
Unit 2: Converted from coal to fossil gas in 2015.
Unit 4: Converted from coal to fossil gas in 2022.
Unit 5: Conversion in pre-construction phase from coal to fossil gas in .
Project-level coal details
- Coal source(s): imported
Impacts
Potential emissions and details on the project's status and permit applications can be viewed on Oil and Gas Watch page here.
The Oil and Gas Watch database, created by Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), is a free, public-facing tool designed to track the rapid expansion of fossil fuel and petrochemical infrastructure in the United States. Oil and Gas Watch maps new and expanding oil, gas, and petrochemical infrastructure projects across the country and monitors each project’s construction status so the public can stay informed about major oil and gas developments being proposed in their communities. We track key environmental approvals companies must obtain before starting construction or operations and provide access to thousands of government records and permits unearthed by our analysts.
Ownership Tree
This ownership tree is part of the Global Energy Ownership Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.
Conversion to Gas and Unit Retirements
In January 2014 Alabama Power announced its plans for its older, units 1-3 at the Barry coal plant to be running on natural gas starting 2016. The company claimed that 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.[17]
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 was debating whether to convert unit 3 to gas, close it, or keep it as a coal plant.[18]
According to the EIA 860 database unit 3 retired in August of 2015.[19]
On the Q3 conference call 2021 Southern Company announced that they will close unit 5 and convert Units 4 to natural gas before the end of 2028 depending on oversight approval.[20]
In February 2022, a special order highlighted the lack of pollution abatement equipment installed at the plant's Unit 4. In both 2020 and 2021, the Unit was found to be in violation of emission limits, particularly Sulphur dioxide and hydrochloric acid. There were "environmental justice communities" within the at-risk zone of the pollution. According to enforcement action, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and Alabama Power Company must end the burning of coal in Barry Steam Plant's Unit 4 by the end of 2023.[21] In March 2022, the Air Division of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management recommended issuing an air permit for the proposed project[22].
According to an annual progress report for the Barry Steam Plant filed in October 2022, Alabama Power was planning to retire Units 4 and 5 by the end of 2028.[23] However, in the company's 10-K report to the Securities Exchange Commission for the year ending December 2022, Alabama Power said they expected to retire Unit 5 "in late 2023 or early 2024 subject to certain operating conditions."[24]
In December 2022, Unit 4 switched from using coal to running entirely on gas.[25]
In their 2023 annual report published in March 2024, Alabama Power said that they now expected to retire Unit 5 on or before December 21, 2028.[25]
In April 2024, it was reported that Alabama Power was planning to upgrade the turbines of the existing units between 2027 and 2029.[26]
Emissions Data
- 2024 Gross Load (MWh): 837,476[27]
- 2024 SO2 Mass (short tons): 154[27]
- 2024 CO2 Mass (short tons): 889,439[27]
- 2024 NOx Mass (short tons): 461[27]
- 2023 Mercury emissions (Hg, lb): 7.08[28][29]
Coal Waste Site
The Barry Steam Plant Ash Pond is the coal ash disposal site associated with Barry Steam Plant, owned and operated by Southern Company subsidiary Alabama Power near Bucks, Alabama.
In September 2022, the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama Richard Moore, on behalf of NGO Mobile Baykeeper, sued Alabama Power over their plan to leave 21 million tons of coal ash at the Barry Steam Plant in an unlined pit on the floodplain next to the Mobile River. According to the Director of SELC's Alabama office, it "is the only coal ash lagoon of a major utility left in a low-lying coastal area of the Southeast that is not already cleaned up or on track to be recycled or removed to safe storage".[30]
In January 2024, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against Alabama Power.[31]
In June 2025, a study published in Science of the Total Environment found that arsenic and cadmium in water and sediment samples downstream from Barry Steam Plant breached U.S. drinking water standards. Researchers examined heavy metal contamination near the outfall from the coal ash dam during the dry season, the wet season, and following a flood in March 2023, and found “a significant contribution” of arsenic and cadmium from coal ash in suspended sediments and surface water at the discharge point of the plant, especially during the dry season. The study reported cadmium in suspended sediments as high as 4.2 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg), and arsenic as high as 44.6 mg/kg.[32][33]
By September 2025, Mobile Baykeeper had appealed their case to the 11th Circuit of Appeals, and oral arguments were held in federal court that month.[34] In May 2026, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Mobile Baykeeper’s legal challenge against Alabama Power and their plan to keep coal ash from the Barry coal plant in unlined pits along the Mobile River. The panel of judges ruled that Mobile Baykeeper had standing and that their claims under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act should be returned to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama for hearing.[35][36]
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.[37] The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.[38]
Barry Steam Plant ranked number 13 on the list, with 2,350,349 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.[37]
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.[39]
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."[40]
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.[41].
Citizen Groups
See also Alabama and coal
- Black Warrior Riverkeeper
- GASP (formerly Alabama First)
Articles and Resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Form EIA-923 detailed data with previous form data (EIA-906/920) - 2024". U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2024. Archived from the original on 2026-03-25. Retrieved 2026-03-23.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 "U.S. Energy Information Administration, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory (November 2019)". Archived from the original on 2020-06-12. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Plant Barry Timeline" (PDF). Alabama Power. 2020-06. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-05-30.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 "U.S. Energy Information Administration, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory (May 2023)". Archived from the original on 2023-09-18. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20220709063403/https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/james-m-barry-electric-generating-plant-expansion/. Archived from the original on 2022-07-09.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 "2023 Annual Report" (PDF). Southern Company. 2024-04-16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-05-16.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Annual Progress Report for Units 4 and 5 of the James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant". Alabama Power. 2022-10-13. Archived from the original on 2024-02-18. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant Expansion, Alabama, USA". Archived from the original on 2024-06-03. Retrieved 2024-06-03.
- ↑ (PDF) https://www.alabamapower.com/content/dam/alabama-power/pdfs-docs/company/compliance---regulation/elg/plant-barry-nopp-annual-progress-report-2024.pdf.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ 10.0 10.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20230509053328/https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia860m/. Archived from the original on 2023-05-09. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 https://ukozvhzgrcnkcatjqfoo.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/03-00-air-construction/2025.11.14_Barry_Steam_Plant_503-1001-X021_Application_3925977f.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Annual Electric Power Industry Report, Form EIA-860 detailed data with previous form data (EIA-860A/860B) - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)". www.eia.gov. 2025-09-09. Archived from the original on 2022-10-28. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
- ↑ (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20220709054135/http://adem.alabama.gov/newsEvents/notices/aug20/pdfs/8alpower-barry-pd.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-07-09.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20221222092715/https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2022/12/alabama-power-on-schedule-with-1-billion-expansion.html. Archived from the original on 2022-12-22.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20220816173707/https://www.alreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Final-Petition-Public.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-08-16.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 "U.S. Energy Information Administration, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory (July 2021)". Archived from the original on 2021-11-22. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
- ↑ "Southern to repower three Alabama coal power plants with natgas," Reuters, Jan 16, 2014
- ↑ "3 Basins to Serve the Surviving US Coal Fleet," Coal Age, archived April 2, 2016
- ↑ "Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory" eia.gov, 860m March 2020
- ↑ "Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call Presentation," investor.southerncompany.com, accessed November 5, 2021.
- ↑ "Comments on Special Order by Consent for Alabama Power Company Barry Steam Electric Generating Plant," GASP, Energy Alabama, Sierra Club, MEJAC and C.H.E.S.S., February 17, 2022
- ↑ "Engineering Analysis. Alabama Power Company – Plant Barry" (PDF). Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Annual Progress Report for Units 4 and 5 of the James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant," Alabama Power, October 13, 2022
- ↑ "Form 10-K - Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(D) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2022," The Southern Company, February 15, 2023
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 "2023 Annual Report" (PDF). Southern Company. April 16, 2024. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant Expansion, Alabama, USA". Power Technology. February 1, 2024. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 EIA (2024). "Clean Air Markets Program Data (CAMD)". Retrieved 2025-02-20.
- ↑ Clean Air and Power Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (February 2024). "Annual data 2022 vs. 2023". Retrieved 2025-03-04.
- ↑ Toxics Release Inventory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (October 2024). "2023 Basic Plus Data". Retrieved 2025-03-04.
- ↑ Mobile Baykeeper, SELC sue Alabama Power to stop continued coal ash pollution in Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, Southern Environmental Law Center, September 26, 2022.
- ↑ “Federal judge dismisses Mobile Baykeeper lawsuit against Alabama Power,” 1819 News, January 5, 2024
- ↑ Anderson et al., “Hydrological and geochemical controls of surface water and suspended sediment toxic metal fluxes from nearshore large coal ash pond,” Science of the Total Environment, June 1, 2025
- ↑ “Arsenic, cadmium leaks from coal ash in coastal Alabama rival 2008 disaster, study says,” AL.com, September 26, 2025
- ↑ “Mobile Baykeeper appeals dismissal of lawsuit against Alabama Power,” 1819 News, September 24, 2025
- ↑ “Appeals court revives Alabama lawsuit over coal ash,” Alabama Public Radio, May 18, 2026
- ↑ “Mobile Baykeeper wins Plant Barry coal ash lawsuit appeal,” Southern Environmental Law Center, May 18, 2026
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 Sue Sturgis, "Coal's ticking timebomb: Could disaster strike a coal ash dump near you?," Institute for Southern Studies, January 4, 2009.
- ↑ TRI Explorer, EPA, accessed January 2009.
- ↑ "Laura Miller gets her clean coal grant," Dallas News, December 4, 2009.
- ↑ " Daniel Kessler Treehugger.com March, 1 2010.
- ↑ "Southern captures carbon emissions for first time" Margaret Newkirk, Atlanta Journal-Constitution September 23, 2010
Additional data
To access additional data, including interactive maps of the power stations, downloadable datasets, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker and the Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.
