Brownfield & Retired Power Plant Sites in North Carolina
41 catalogued brownfield and retired-generation sites in North Carolina, 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 North Carolina?
By former use, the list includes 12 coal, 10 natural gas, 10 oil, 3 biomass, 3 landfill, 2 Superfund and 1 other categories. Recorded retirement dates run from June 2001 to December 2024, with 10 retirements in 2015 or later. 35 of 36 sites with a measured distance sit within 2 miles of a transmission substation.
How does North Carolina compare with other states?
North Carolina ranks 16th of 50 states and DC by number of brownfield and retired-generation sites, out of 2,085 nationally. By recorded capacity (11,005 MW) it ranks 7th, against 289,280 MW across all states. The state also has 2,778 scored datacenter candidate sites, 12 of them classed as brownfield sites, averaging 55.1 on the 0–100 DC Readiness scale.
Where in North Carolina are these sites?
- Gaston County · 4
- Buncombe County · 3
- Cleveland County · 2
- Wayne County · 2
- Orange County · 2
- Catawba County · 2
- NOT IN FILE County · 1
- New Hanover County · 1
- Rowan County · 1
- Chatham County · 1
- Rockingham County · 1
- Robeson County · 1
- Graham County · 1
- Dare County · 1
- Martin County · 1
- Craven County · 1
- Columbus County · 1
- Person County · 1
- Carteret County · 1
- Forsyth County · 1
- Guilford County · 1
- Davidson County · 1
- Burke County · 1
- Chowan County · 1
All brownfield and retired plant sites in North Carolina
| Site | Former use | Capacity | Retired | County |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA 1 (NC) | gas | 3,132 MW | — | NOT IN FILE |
| G G Allen | coal | 1,148 MW | 2024-12-01 | Gaston |
| James E. Rogers Energy Complex | coal | 1,010 MW | 2011-10-01 | Cleveland |
| L V Sutton Steam | coal | 763 MW | 2017-07-01 | New Hanover |
| Cleveland Cnty Generating Facility | gas | 736 MW | — | Cleveland |
| Future Gen Plant 2 | gas | 612 MW | — | — |
| Riverbend | coal | 601 MW | 2013-05-01 | Gaston |
| HF Lee Plant | coal | 508 MW | 2012-10-01 | Wayne |
| Buck | coal | 474 MW | 2013-05-01 | Rowan |
| Cape Fear | coal | 431 MW | 2013-03-01 | Chatham |
| Asheville | coal | 414 MW | 2020-01-01 | Buncombe |
| Dan River | coal | 388 MW | 2012-10-01 | Rockingham |
| Future Gen Plant 1 | gas | 212 MW | — | — |
| W H Weatherspoon | coal | 166 MW | 2011-09-01 | Robeson |
| Cheoah | hydro | 80 MW | 2012-10-01 | Graham |
| Kitty Hawk | oil | 48 MW | 2011-12-01 | Dare |
| Domtar Paper Co LLC Plymouth NC | biomass | 48 MW | 2020-12-01 | Martin |
| Woodfin | gas | 46 MW | — | Buncombe |
| International Paper Co. - New Bern Mill | biomass | 30 MW | 2014-04-01 | Craven |
| Camp Lejeune Military Res. (USNAVY) | superfund | 24 MW | — | — |
| Univ of NC Chapel Hill Cogen Facility | coal | 24 MW | — | Orange |
| International Paper Riegelwood Mill | biomass | 18 MW | 2022-06-01 | Columbus |
| Roxboro | oil | 16 MW | 2007-12-01 | Person |
| Morehead | oil | 16 MW | 2012-10-01 | Carteret |
| Enka | coal | 16 MW | 2001-06-01 | Buncombe |
| Apple Data Center - Fuel Cell 1&2 | gas | 11 MW | 2021-11-01 | Catawba |
| Riverside Landfill Solar | landfill | 5 MW | — | — |
| White Street Landfill | landfill | 5 MW | — | — |
| Salem Energy Systems LLC | gas | 5 MW | 2017-11-01 | Forsyth |
| ReVenture - Biomass | superfund | 4 MW | — | — |
| Terreva Wayne County RNG, LLC | gas | 3 MW | 2024-05-01 | Wayne |
| Maiden Finger Street | oil | 2 MW | 2012-10-01 | Catawba |
| Gastonia Duke Street | oil | 2 MW | 2012-09-01 | Gaston |
| High Point, Jackson Lake | oil | 2 MW | 2007-11-01 | Guilford |
| Lexington Hickory Street | oil | 2 MW | 2012-09-01 | Davidson |
| Gastonia Rankin Lake | oil | 2 MW | 2012-09-01 | Gaston |
| Water Filter Plant #2 | oil | 2 MW | 2013-05-01 | Burke |
| Edenton Generators | oil | 1 MW | 2011-07-01 | Chowan |
| Mas Durham Power, LLC | gas | 1 MW | 2018-10-01 | Durham |
| UNC-CH LFG Facility | gas | 1 MW | 2020-07-01 | Orange |
| Evergreen Packaging Landfill | landfill | 1 MW | — | — |
Frequently asked questions
How many retired power plants are in North Carolina?
GridCensus lists 36 retired power plant sites in North Carolina from EIA-860 retirement records. 30 have a recorded retirement date, 10 of them in 2015 or later.
What is the largest retired power plant or brownfield site in North Carolina?
NA 1 (NC) in unsited is the largest by recorded capacity, at 3,132.3 MW. It is followed by G G Allen (1,148.4 MW) and James E. Rogers Energy Complex (1,010 MW).
Which power plant in North Carolina retired most recently?
G G Allen has the latest recorded retirement date in the state, December 2024, with 1,148.4 MW of capacity.
Which county in North Carolina has the most brownfield and retired plant sites?
Gaston County has the most, with 4, followed by Buncombe County with 3.
How many EPA brownfield sites in North Carolina have completed cleanup?
5 of the 5 EPA-tracked sites listed for North Carolina are recorded as cleanup complete.
Looking for a specific record? The directory lists every brownfield site, A to Z.
More on North Carolina, and states with similar counts
- Datacenter candidate sites in North Carolina· 2,778 sites
- Electric substations in North Carolina· 106 named
- Brownfield candidate sites nationwide
- Brownfield sites by state
- Brownfield sites in Indiana· 45 sites
- Brownfield sites in Missouri· 39 sites
- Brownfield sites in Kansas· 46 sites
- Brownfield sites in Georgia· 37 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 North Carolina”, https://gridcensus.com/brownfield-sites/north-carolina (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 North Carolina 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.