For Immediate Release
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Contact:
Melissa Williams, melissa.williams@sierraclub.org
Sean Sarah, sean.sarah@sierraclub.org
Sierra Club applauds retirement announcement for Rocky Mount coal plant
DURHAM, N.C.—Sierra Club welcomes the official news that the Edgecombe Genco coal-fired power plant, located in Rocky Mount, will retire in 2020.
Plant owners submitted an updated deactivation request for the 26-year-old plant on April 18, with a retirement date of Oct. 31, 2020.
The news comes as the demand for solar is booming in the area and across North Carolina. Dominion, whose territory includes the Edgecombe plant ranks #2 nationwide for the amount of solar installed per customer.
Over the past year, more than two dozen “sunlight-to-energy facilities” have been in various stages of construction in Nash and Edgecombe counties, with about 20 solar farms in Nash and six in Edgecombe.
The momentum for clean, renewable energy sources is powerful in the Tar Heel state, which ranks second in the nation for installed solar capacity. And in February, the $400 million Amazon wind farm near Elizabeth City connected to the grid. It’s the first utility-scale wind farm in North Carolina, and the first large scale wind energy facility in the southeastern U.S.
The farm will generate 208 megawatts of electricity—enough to power more than 61,000 homes.
The Sierra Club and its allies will continue to push utilities and decision makers in North Carolina and across the country to fully embrace renewables and commit to a complete transition to clean energy.
“The momentum for clean energy can’t be stopped,” said David Rogers, campaign representative for the Beyond Coal campaign in North Carolina. “The sooner we move away from fossil fuels, the sooner we can fully invest in sustainable clean energy that creates jobs and powers our homes and businesses without poisoning our communities.”
Edgecombe marks the 252nd announced coal plant closure since the launch of the Beyond Coal campaign in 2010.