Brownfield & Retired Power Plant Sites in Alabama
21 catalogued brownfield and retired-generation sites in Alabama, listed by former capacity. Each carries an existing utility-scale grid interconnection that a new datacenter load may be able to re-use.
At a glance
What kinds of former sites are in Alabama?
By former use, the list includes 9 natural gas, 6 coal, 3 biomass, 2 Superfund, 1 hydroelectric. Recorded retirement dates run from September 2001 to January 2023, with 11 retirements in 2015 or later. 18 of 18 sites with a measured distance sit within 2 miles of a transmission substation.
How does Alabama compare with other states?
Alabama ranks 34th of 50 states and DC by number of brownfield and retired-generation sites, out of 2,085 nationally. By recorded capacity (8,538 MW) it ranks 9th, against 289,280 MW across all states. The state also has 3,107 scored datacenter candidate sites, 5 of them classed as brownfield sites, averaging 55 on the 0–100 DC Readiness scale.
Where in Alabama are these sites?
- Lee County · 2
- Jackson County · 1
- Walker County · 1
- Colbert County · 1
- Autauga County · 1
- Washington County · 1
- Mobile County · 1
- Etowah County · 1
- Talladega County · 1
- Choctaw County · 1
- Marengo County · 1
- Jefferson County · 1
- Escambia County · 1
- Houston County · 1
- MOBILE County · 1
All brownfield and retired plant sites in Alabama
| Site | Former use | Capacity | Retired | County |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Widows Creek | coal | 1,969 MW | 2015-09-01 | Jackson |
| Gorgas | coal | 1,417 MW | 2019-04-01 | Walker |
| Colbert | coal | 1,350 MW | 2016-04-01 | Colbert |
| E B Harris Electric Generating Plant | gas | 1,230 MW | — | Autauga |
| H Allen Franklin Combined Cycle | gas | 688 MW | — | Lee |
| Lowman Energy Center | coal | 538 MW | 2020-10-01 | Washington |
| APC2 | gas | 300 MW | — | — |
| Barry | coal | 272 MW | 2015-08-01 | Mobile |
| APC1 | gas | 270 MW | — | — |
| APC3 | gas | 200 MW | — | — |
| Gadsden | gas | 138 MW | 2023-01-01 | Etowah |
| U S Alliance Coosa Pines | coal | 38 MW | 2019-01-01 | Talladega |
| Georgia-Pacific Consr Prods LP-Naheola | biomass | 31 MW | 2019-06-01 | Choctaw |
| WestRock Demopolis Mill | biomass | 29 MW | 2012-05-01 | Marengo |
| Sloss Industries Corp | gas | 25 MW | 2021-11-01 | Jefferson |
| Georgia-Pacific Brewton Mill | biomass | 13 MW | 2017-03-01 | Escambia |
| USARMY/NASA Redstone Arsenal | superfund | 10 MW | — | — |
| Anniston Army Depot | superfund | 7 MW | — | — |
| Goat Rock | hydro | 6 MW | 2001-09-01 | Lee |
| Crestwood Dothan | gas | 5 MW | 2003-01-01 | Houston |
| Yellowhammer Gas Plant | gas | 3 MW | 2021-01-01 | MOBILE |
Frequently asked questions
How many retired power plants are in Alabama?
GridCensus lists 19 retired power plant sites in Alabama from EIA-860 retirement records. 14 have a recorded retirement date, 11 of them in 2015 or later.
What is the largest retired power plant or brownfield site in Alabama?
Widows Creek in Stevenson is the largest by recorded capacity, at 1,968.6 MW. It is followed by Gorgas (1,416.7 MW) and Colbert (1,350 MW).
Which power plant in Alabama retired most recently?
Gadsden has the latest recorded retirement date in the state, January 2023, with 138 MW of capacity.
Which county in Alabama has the most brownfield and retired plant sites?
Lee County has the most, with 2, followed by Jackson County with 1.
How many EPA brownfield sites in Alabama have completed cleanup?
2 of the 2 EPA-tracked sites listed for Alabama are recorded as cleanup complete.
Looking for a specific record? The directory lists every brownfield site, A to Z.
More on Alabama, and states with similar counts
- Datacenter candidate sites in Alabama· 3,107 sites
- Electric substations in Alabama· 158 named
- Brownfield candidate sites nationwide
- Brownfield sites by state
- Brownfield sites in Oklahoma· 22 sites
- Brownfield sites in Rhode Island· 21 sites
- Brownfield sites in New Mexico· 22 sites
- Brownfield sites in Washington· 21 sites
About this data
Source: EIA-860 retired generating units and EPA RE-Powering America's Land contaminated-site records, as published March 6, 2026. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: GridCensus, “Brownfield and retired power plant sites in Alabama”, https://gridcensus.com/brownfield-sites/alabama (data as of March 6, 2026).
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for brownfield sites in Alabama is free to browse. Pro adds Watchtower on 25 sites, alerts when new candidate sites, datacenters or interconnection-queue requests appear in your markets, score and capacity history, and CSV export. Enterprise adds team seats, weekly data files for all 147,272 sites, the REST API and an MCP server for AI tools.