Last New Coal Plant in U.S.?

Dean Alford, EE 76, never expected to become the face of a coal plant.

A clean-cut businessman with snow-white hair and a matching mustache, he looks comfortable in a tailored suit with a pocket-square intricately styled into three points over his chest. Despite his manicured appearance, he has an easy presence and comfortable charm. His big smile and Southern accent that’s equal parts folksy and sophisticated are a testament to his many years in politics.

As president and CEO of Allied Energy, Alford, EE 76, has acted as spokesman for a proposed coal plant in Georgia that has gained national attention amid sweeping new regulations on carbon emissions from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In 2008, Allied, which develops energy projects for clients in North and Central America and the Caribbean, filed a permit to build a new, $2.1 billion, 850-megawatt coal plant on behalf of a corporation called Power 4 Georgians.

The coal-fired power plant—known as Plant Washington—is to be built in Washington County, just outside of Sandersville. Despite many road bumps and challenges, the project is still underway. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division recently granted the Plant Washington team an 18-month extension to of its existing state air quality permits. Alford says the extension gives the team time to determine how the project could be possibly impacted by the U.S. EPA’s proposed new regulations.

“Right now we’re full speed ahead,” Alford says. “It very well could be the last coal plant built in this country for a very long time.”

Many doubt that Plant Washington will ever become a reality. The project has been held up for years by evolving air pollution regulations, and lengthy court challenges have slowed the project down.

“We didn’t believe there’d be quite this much uncertainty, but we knew there’d be some,” Alford says. “It’s been an interesting project.”

When it comes to energy, Alford believes in an “all-of-the-above” strategy. He supports the expansion of coal at a time when the U.S. is looking to wean off of it as the main source of electricity.

He believes that the country needs to come up with a comprehensive strategy that includes everything from solar energy to coal to provide for the energy needs of the future.

“There’s no magic bullet,” Alford says.

Which is why, against the odds, Alford is helping to shepherd the development of a new coal plant in central Georgia. As new regulations and a changing energy market cause old, dirty coal plants around the country to shutter, Alford is working to build what could very well be the last new coal plant built in the U.S.—at least for a long time.

His work may not be popular with many, but Alford believes it’s necessary for coal to remain a viable piece of the nation’s future energy portfolio. “I believe this is the right thing to do for this state, and the right thing to do for this country, not to kill one of our energy sources,” Alford says.

Back when work on Plant Washington was first getting started, there were 15 other coal projects in the works. Since that time, all have been canceled because of regulatory changes and economic concerns. “When people feel the first bit of resistance, they flee,” Alford says. “Uncertainty causes a lot of people to bail out.”

But despite the risks, Alford and his team decided to double down. Power 4 Georgians wants the plant to provide power for Georgia’s projected population growth. Alford says the project’s backers have been very patient. And Georgia is a more coal-friendly environment than many other states.

Drawing on his comfortable charm, Alford reaches into his mental pocket for a story to explain the circumstances. He said one day while he was fishing as a boy, he asked his father what causes morning dew. His father answered: “When the conditions are right, it just shows up.”

In the case of Plant Washington, the conditions were just right.

“To take some of these risks without knowing answers has and will pay off,” Alford says. “The folks that have been involved understand the importance of coal in the energy mix.”

Building power plants is an extremely expensive and time-consuming process, Alford says. So it’s easy to understand why many would back out with so much uncertainty.

“Nobody believed we’d ever get the permit,” Alford says with a smile. “I’ve collected a few lunches on that bet.”

While things have fallen into place with Plant Washington, the project hasn’t just been lucky, but almost impossibly lucky. As a plant already in progress, Plant Washington was exempted by name in the EPA’s proposed guidelines for new power plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency released the new regulations for greenhouse gas emissions in January 2014. The new rules, which have not yet been finalized, propose “a separate standard of performance for plants that burn coal, petroleum coke and other fossil fuels that is based on partial implementation of carbon capture and storage as the best system of emission reduction.”

A relatively new technology known as carbon capture and storage, or CCS, would capture carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants and bury them in sealed, underground rock formations, rather than releasing them from a smokestack into the atmosphere. Though coal may never be considered a “clean” energy source, CCS plants would create far less pollution than a typical coal plant by preventing greenhouse gases and other chemicals from billowing out of smoke stacks.

Currently, only a handful of these facilities exist in the world. Alford says the biggest problem with carbon capture technology is that because it’s so new, it’s incredibly expensive.

Plant Washington will not be built with carbon capture equipment. But it will be constructed with the option of adding the technology in the future.

“We designed our stack in a way that we will be able to do carbon capture when the technology is available for us to do that,” Alford says. “The proposed rule for greenhouse gases, the level they are requiring for coal plants is not at this time technologically and economically feasible.”

For an example of why scientists are hoping to curb the use of coal, look no further than Beijing, China, where air pollution is so bad that a thick, gray haze often cloaks the sky and pedestrians regularly wear masks so they don’t get sick from breathing the air.

Burning fossil fuels has been shown to increase the temperature of the earth. The United States’ restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are an effort to curb this climate change, which scientists believe will lead to flooding, food shortages, animal extinction and other catastrophic consequences.

However, Alford says that even without carbon capture technology, Plant Washington would be much cleaner than a traditional coal plant. Alford uses cars as an analogy: Comparing plans for Plant Washington to an old coal plant would be like trying to compare the efficiency of a brand new 2015 model to a car made in the 1960s.

Alford says there are several things that will help make the Plant Washington create less pollution. It will employ a supercritical broiler, meaning it will burn at a very high temperature to create more energy with less coal, and wet scrubbers will be used to remove pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide from the facility’s emissions. Alford says about 80 percent of the proposed facility would be dedicated to cleaning the airstream.

“The technology to remove pollutants is amazing,” he says.

Alford thinks replacing old, coal-burning power plants with newer, more efficient ones could be a way to reduce air pollution without taking away one of the nation’s major energy sources. “This is a strategy that could really work and be a part of the mix.” Alford says. “It’s too important not to look at it.”

Despite Alford’s optimism, Plant Washington has fierce critics. Some concerns are pragmatic, such as those questioning the logic of building an expensive new coal plant at a time when natural gas is cheaper, cleaner and more abundant.

Others have economic concerns. Georgia Watch, a consumer protection organization, commissioned a report in 2011 that concluded Plant Washington would cause electricity rates to go up by as much as 20 percent due to factors including the high cost of construction, increasingly stringent environmental regulations and the volatility of coal prices.

And of course, a major concern is that a new coal-fired plant might pollute the surrounding environment. In addition to the waste that would come out of the smoke stacks, the plant would also require a significant amount of water from the already-strapped Oconee River.

But Alford has come to terms with the criticism and maintains his belief that the plant would benefit Georgians. “I learned a long time ago if you’re going to do anything of significance, people are going to disagree with you,” Alford says.

Alford himself has become the target of much of the opposition over the years, with some accusing him of taking on the project as a way to make money for himself and his politically connected friends.

His opponents have not just been quietly writing letters to the editor—though they’ve been doing that too—but staging more public displays against Alford and Plant Washington. Alford says he’s been the center of street protests, with crowds gathering for hours at a time to picket. He’s seen his face plastered on billboards with less than kind words.

He says while his detractors are very vocal, he’s also encouraged by the people who support what he’s doing. “It’s important to this community. It’s a $2 billion investment and [means] hundreds of jobs,” Alford says. “I’ve had people stop me on the street down there in Washington County and encourage me to continue because their kids need jobs.”

Alford has a unique perspective on energy because of not only his professional career, but his experience on the policy side of the industry.

He spent a decade in elected office, during which he got to see first hand how energy can be a heated political issue. At age 28, Alford ran for the Georgia House of Representatives and won a seat representing east DeKalb and Rockdale counties. After that initial victory, Alford went on to win reelection several more times, serving in the House for 10 consecutive years.

Alford says he learned many invaluable lessons during his time in the state Legislature. “I’ll always be indebted to the people of my district for giving me that opportunity,” Alford says.

The Georgia General Assembly is a tough environment that requires one to develop a thick skin. And it was under that Gold Dome that Alford learned the art of disagreement.

In the 1980s and 90s, the state Legislature was a far different place. Back then, the era of Southern Democratic dominance was coming to an end and Republicans were gaining momentum, leading to a state government that was far more purple than today’s deep shade of red.

The split made it necessary for legislators with differing viewpoints to work together in order to make the state function. He says his biggest takeaway from the General Assembly was accepting differences of opinion. To be an effective legislator, you had to listen to diverse perspectives—whether they came from your constituents or your colleagues.

These days, he worries about the state of political discourse and debate that’s often rigid and dogmatic. “Differing opinions are how we discover and broaden our horizons,” Alford says. “We really do almost discourage different thought.”

Though the attacks against the coal plant have at times been more personal than he’d prefer, he doesn’t discourage the pushback. “They have that right,” Alford says of his critics.

Regardless of how you feel about him, you can’t deny that Alford has spent a lot of time and energy working in his community.

His resume includes a long list of involvement in various organizations, from the Rotary Club to the Boy Scouts of America, the Conyers/Rockdale Chamber of Commerce, the Boys and Girls Club and of course, Georgia Tech. Alford has served on several of the Institute’s advisory boards—including the Alumni Association’s Board of Trustees, for which he served as chairman in fiscal year 2013.

He’s also been appointed to several state boards, including the original Georgia Technology Board, the Georgia Board of Education, the State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia and the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents.

In fact, Alford is the only Georgian to serve on all three of the state’s education boards. “I’m really honored by that,” he says.

Alford may be somewhat known—for good and bad—for his vocal support of coal, but he first made a name for himself in the field of energy conservation.

After getting out of Tech, Alford spent a few years with Georgia Power before starting his own company in the midst of the energy crisis of the 1970s. His firm helped utilities improve their conservation and efficiency efforts—relatively new interests at the time.

Before energy prices soared in the ’70s, power was so cheap that no one gave much thought to efficiency or conservation. But with a need to save costs, those ideas were not just about helping the earth, but making sound business decisions. “Energy efficiency was really not part of the vocabulary,” Alford says.

It was a concept Alford says he learned from his electrical engineering professors at Tech.

“It was a new phenomenon and it was a culture change for some of my clients,” Alford says. “Today, energy efficiency is very much a part of how they conduct business.”

Alford says individuals are also much more cognizant of their own thermostats and light bulbs than they ever were decades ago. “Customers have become more aware that they take control of their own destiny a little,” Alford says.

Alford was practically born for a career in the energy field. He was raised by a father who spent 40 years providing for the family as a cable splicer at Georgia Power. While at Georgia Tech, Alford worked as a co-op engineer with Georgia Power while he earned his electrical engineering degree.

He followed the path that his father always hoped he would take: “His dream was for his boys to go to Georgia Tech and be engineers,” Alford says.

Like his father, Alford has great confidence in Georgia Tech. He believes researchers and engineers from Tech have the ability to create solutions for the world’s growing energy needs.

“What’s important for Tech is that it doesn’t put constraints on them for political gain,” Alford says. “Sometimes you’ve got to go against the grain to really make great discoveries.”

As Alford’s Plant Washington project moves forward—against the grain—he remains resolute and resourceful enough to finally make it a reality in what he hopes is the very near future.

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