Gas-Fired Power a Big Part of Alabama Projects

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--While capital natural gas-fired power projects are becoming fewer and farther between in the U.S. as the country's power companies flock to renewables, Alabama seems to be bucking the trend with two large gas-fired projects under construction. The projects have a combined estimated total investment value of more than $1.6 billion, contributing significantly to Alabama's $9.77 billion in projects under construction. But the biggest project underway in the state is one that is sure to keep thousands of children happy with what's in their lunchboxes.

Click on the image at right for a breakdown by industry of projects under construction in Alabama.

While the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) (Knoxville, Tennessee) shifts away from coal and has expressed strong interest in broadening its nuclear footprint, the agency continues to install gas-fired power plants, including in Alabama. At its Colbert Combustion Turbines plant in Tuscumbia, TVA is adding three simple-cycle gas-fired turbines to provide 750 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity. TVA installed its first gas turbines at the Colbert site in 1972, making it the agency's oldest gas-fired plant. The site also had five coal-fired units installed in the 1950s and 1960s. The last of these coal units was idled in 2016, and the coal plant was demolished in 2021. Construction of the new gas-fired turbines began later that year, and the project is expected to wrap up in late 2023 or early 2024. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can click here for the detailed report.

In Bucks, Alabama, about 25 miles north of Mobile, Southern Company (NYSE:SO) (Atlanta, Georgia) subsidiary Alabama Power Company (Birmingham, Alabama) is underway with the construction of the combined-cycle Unit 8 at its James M. Barry Power Station. Construction on this gas-fired unit also kicked off in 2021, with Black & Veatch Incorporated (Overland Park, Kansas) providing turnkey services. The project is expected to be completed toward the end of next year. Subscribers can click here for additional information.

Anyone with children of a certain age is probably familiar with The J.M. Smucker Company's (NYSE:SJM) (Orrville, Ohio) Uncrustables frozen sandwiches, a frozen crustless sandwich generally filled with peanut and jelly and perfect for a child's quick snack or to thaw in a lunchbox, ready just in time for lunch. Uncrustables are coming to the Birmingham area (specifically the town of McCalla) in a big way with the construction of a grassroot production plant. Construction on phases I and II kicked off earlier this year and will be followed by a third phase. The initial phases of the project entail constructing a 900,000+-square-foot building and the installation of production equipment. According to local news media, the facility is to help Smucker meet its annual goal of $1 billion in annual net sales of Uncrustables over the next five years. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Food & Beverage Project Database can click here for the report.

Other notable projects in the state include the addition of an electric arc furnace (EAF) at Nippon Steel Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) and ArcelorMittal's (Luxembourg, Luxembourg) (NYSE:MT) steel processing plant in Calvert. Upon completion, the furnace will be able to produce 1.5 million tons per year of steel slabs. Construction kicked off early last year and is expected to be completed next summer. The companies first agreed to build an EAF at the plant in 2020. The furnace is planned to go into operation in the first half of 2023. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Metals & Minerals Project Database can click here for the detailed report.

Some of the biggest players in the technology field also are further cementing their positions in Alabama, including Facebook parent Meta Platforms Incorporated (NASDAQ:META) (Menlo Park, California) and Google parent Alphabet Incorporated (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (Mountain View, California). Meta is underway with Project Starbelt, which includes constructing three buildings at its campus in Huntsville. The project kicked off early last year and is expected to wrap up by the end of this year.

Alphabet is constructing a grassroot data center in Bridgeport, in the northeast corner of the state. The facility is being constructed at the site of TVA's retired Widows Creek Power Plant. According to local news media, TVA is working closely with Alphabet to provide renewable energy to fully match the data center's power usage. "[W]e can repurpose existing electric and other infrastructure to make sure our data centers are reliably serving our users around the world," said Patrick Gammons, Google's senior manager of data center energy and location strategy, in a blog post. Construction kicked off in 2018 and is expected to be completed in mid-2024. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can click here for the report on the Meta project and here for the Alphabet project.

Click here for links to all of the reports on projects mentioned in this article and here for the plant profiles.

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