For Sale: One Coal Plant – Priced to Move!

Been looking for your own personal outdated energy source lately? You're in luck - Santee Cooper is selling all the parts and design for its now-canceled coal plant in South Carolina. Yes, they're even listing it as for sale – check out this ad found in Power Engineering magazine (PDF) - here's the text:

Santee Cooper – Power Plant Parts and Parcel to go.
Engineered, Procured and Ready to Construct.
Fully designed as a nominal 600 MW GE steam turbine, this Unit 1 power block is a coal-fired electric generating unit in waiting - making it or its equipment a perfect solution for a utility that projects demand and demands efficiency.

Ready for re-siting and permitting, this plant design comes with complete documentation of the power block specifications and calculations - and its major equipment is 100% delivered. If you have interest in either the entire plant design or the equipment, they are priced to move. Quickly.

You see, it really is priced to move - and quickly! As it turns out, this cozy little coal plant (wonder if it has a breakfast nook?) was one Santee Cooper had proposed in Kingsburg, South Carolina, but then canceled. The Sierra Club had been heavily involved in fighting this plant. See this article from SCnow for more details.

That's right, Santee Cooper decided it wasn't feasible to build this plant, so now they are offering the plans to the highest bidder. If they can't build a power plant using a dirty, outdated energy source - surely someone else can! This real estate sale even has its own website, with many more details about what's included in the package.

Hey, if this doesn't get your checkbook out right away, nothing will:

All design associated with the equipment listed is complete as are the foundations and buildings for the boiler, coal silo bay, and turbine building, including all foundations which are of a heavy mat design on piles that can easily transfer to other locations.

I have always, always, wanted my own coal silo bay. They make such good game rooms. Although to be honest, they had me at "The Alstom steam generator is rated at approximately 4,650,000 lbs per hour capable of burning bituminous coal only or a combination of bituminous coal and petcoke (up to a 70%/30% blend)." I can just feel my lungs burning with excitement…and asthma.

The ad does say all "power plant components," so we're wondering if you can buy just a smokestack. But alright, folks, your turn. What would you do with the spare parts of a coal plant?

-- Heather Moyer