Crews wrap up demolition at retired coal plant. What’s next?

BELMONT, N.C. — The Allen Steam Station on the Catawba River is nearly gone as crews wrap up demolishing it.

Duke Energy crews brought Channel 9 climate reporter Michelle Alfini to the site to see what they’re doing with the coal plant now.

The Gaston County coal plant had powered the Charlotte area for 65 years, but it retired in 2024.

ALSO READ: Duke Energy’s coal-fired Allen Steam Plant retires at the end of the year

Duke Energy spokesman Bill Norton said it left behind millions of dollars in infrastructure ready to connect more modern power sources.

We don’t use all the power Duke Energy can produce all the time.

Our grid adds more solar and relies on always-on nuclear batteries, which help keep things balanced.

“We’re taking that excess energy from the middle of the night, carrying it to when it’s needed most,” Norton said.

For instance, energy use peaks around dawn on chilly winter mornings.

Instead of ramping up a gas generator, battery systems can use stored power to keep the lights on until the peak drops.

“And that helps lower fuel costs for our customers,” Norton said.

The first set of batteries came online at the Allen site near the end of last year, and construction on a bigger installation is set for this spring.

Norton said the transmission lines and transformers already on site make it easy.

“The grid highways that energy travels on to get to your homes to get to power businesses, that’s already here,” Norton said.

There are acres and acres of land on the old Allen site, but Duke Energy said most of it can’t be used for new projects, because it must be used to store coal ash.

“We can’t put new natural gas on top of an ash basin, so really for all the land that we have here, most of it is fairly constrained,” Norton said. “That’s why batteries are so useful.”

The Allen site will be able to store enough energy to power about 180,000 homes when the second battery system is installed.

“We’ll probably not stop there,” Norton said. “We are already considering additional battery storage on top of that given the extensive infrastructure we have here.”

Duke Energy is eyeing other former coal plant sites, as well.

Also in Gaston County, the former Riverbend Station, which retired in 2013, will start construction on a battery system this year.

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