When it began power generation in 1955, the Kingston Fossil Plant on the Clinch River in Roane County, Tennessee, was the largest coal-fired power plant in the world.
But after nearly seven decades of electricity generation — and the nation’s worst coal ash spill at the site more than 15 years ago — the Tennessee Valley Authority has concluded it should shut down all nine of the Kingston coal units in the next three years. To replace the lost generation, TVA staff has concluded the federal utility should build a natural gas plant, combined with additional solar generation and battery storage at the Kingston plant.
In a final environmental impact statement released Friday after more than two years of study and public review, TVA said it plans to shut down and demolish its coal-generating units at Kingston once it completes building a new 1,500-megawatt natural gas plant paired with 3 to 4 megawatts of additional solar generation and a 100 megawatts of battery storage.
The energy switch is expected to be made by 2027 and comes a year after TVA plans to replace its biggest coal plant — the Cumberland Fossil Plant near Nashville — with a similar natural gas plant.