EUHARLEE — Georgia Power is moving from paper approvals to dirt work on one of the state’s largest new fossil builds, even as clean-air advocates keep the project in court.
Georgia Recorder’s Alander Rocha reported Aug. 3 that the utility held a groundbreaking for a natural-gas expansion at Plant Bowen in Bartow County. The same account ties the project to a Georgia Environmental Protection Division air permit issued in January and to roughly 1,500 megawatts of new gas-fired capacity plus about 500 megawatts of battery storage. Bowen already hosts on the order of 3,500 megawatts of coal-fired capability, the Recorder noted.
How the project fits the larger buildout
The Bowen package is not a one-off. Georgia Recorder places it inside nearly 10,000 megawatts of new generating capacity the Public Service Commission certified in December, a slate driven largely by projected data-center load. The utility has also walked back earlier coal-retirement timing for Bowen units, arguing the coal fleet is still needed while new resources come online.
Federal financing is part of the story. The Recorder reported that a $26.5 billion Department of Energy loan package to Southern Company is intended to support more than 16,000 megawatts of projects across Georgia and Alabama, including substantial gas additions at Bowen and a comparable gas program at Coweta County’s Yates plant. At the groundbreaking, Georgia Power President Kim Greene framed the extra generation as necessary for a growing state and pointed to large new customers, including a data-center project outside Savannah that the Recorder linked in its coverage.
U.S. Energy Department officials quoted in the same piece described rising electricity demand as a sign of economic activity and defended natural gas as a large and growing share of U.S. generation. Those remarks sit alongside the utility’s reliability narrative; they do not resolve the air-quality dispute.
The ozone and permit fight
Environmental groups say the Atlanta region’s ozone problem is already backsliding. According to the Recorder, the Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Sierra Club, is challenging EPD’s air-permit approval. After a state administrative law judge sided with Georgia Power on process grounds tied to the area’s 2022 redesignation out of stricter nonattainment status, SELC and Sierra Club appealed to Fulton County Superior Court.
The Recorder quotes SELC counsel arguing that EPD is not applying the most stringent requirements even as the metro area again sees unhealthy ozone. Sierra Club’s Georgia chapter director, also quoted, tied the permit fight to asthma and other health burdens that fall hardest on children and older adults. American Lung Association “State of the Air” rankings cited in the story placed the Atlanta metro among the worse U.S. markets for high-ozone days, with failing or near-failing grades in several core counties.
EPD did not provide comment to the Reporter by publication, the story said.
Why metro ratepayers and neighbors should watch
- Data-center growth is now a first-order driver of Georgia Power’s capital plan, not a niche industrial footnote.
- New gas at Bowen and Yates locks in multi-decade infrastructure choices that affect bills, emissions, and grid shape.
- Ozone litigation could slow permitting copycats even if it does not immediately stop construction.
- Bartow County hosts the hardware; seven-county Atlanta ozone monitoring determines how the air fight is scored.
Nothing in Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony changes the Superior Court docket. The verifiable record is the January air permit, the December PSC capacity package, the DOE loan framing, the groundbreaking itself, and the active Fulton appeal described by Georgia Recorder.
