South Jersey’s Logan coal plant demolished, site to become clean energy hub

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SWEDESBORO, NJ  – With a massive boom of dynamite, the lumbering hulk of the Logan Generating Station was imploded this morning. The state’s last running coal plant, which ended operations this spring, had loomed over the Delaware River, spewing filth since 1994. The implosion comes after the NJBPU approved a petition filed by Atlantic City Electric that modified power purchasing contracts between the utility and Logan Generating Station this past spring.

The units stopped operation in late spring, but Logan’s hulking coal smokestack remained until Friday morning.  The agreement to close the 225-megawatt generating station and the Chambers Cogeneration plant is estimated to save ratepayers $30 million in the next two years. The Starwood Group plans to redevelop the site as a clean energy hub, providing another opportunity for communities along the Delaware to transition from a past powered by fossil fuels to a future powered by renewable sources including energy storage and eliminate more than 4 million metric tons of climate pollutants in the next two years.

In response, Doug O’Malley, Director of Environment New Jersey, released the following statement:

“The days of coal barges floating up the Delaware – and the coal pollution from one of the state’s last coal plants – are officially over. The death of coal plants is a welcome sign of the times for South Jersey. It’s time to make the fossil fuel dinosaurs from our electric sectors extinct. The air pollution was a blight on South Jersey and contributed to poor air quality in Gloucester County. And the same market that has led to shuttering coal plants in New Jersey will accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and to renewables in New Jersey and across the nation. We thank the NJBPU for approving this petition this spring and urge the Murphy administration to end the construction of new fossil fuel gas power plants and infrastructure across the state. We should be working to mothball and demolish fossil fuel plants over the next decade to fight the climate crisis and lead to a renewable energy future.”

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