Brownfield & Retired Power Plant Sites in Tennessee
22 catalogued brownfield and retired-generation sites in Tennessee, 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 Tennessee?
By former use, the list includes 6 coal, 4 landfill, 3 Superfund, 2 natural gas, 2 biomass, 2 mine and 3 other categories. Recorded retirement dates run from October 2006 to September 2023, with 6 retirements in 2015 or later. 19 of 21 sites with a measured distance sit within 2 miles of a transmission substation.
How does Tennessee compare with other states?
Tennessee ranks 30th of 50 states and DC by number of brownfield and retired-generation sites, out of 2,085 nationally. By recorded capacity (5,136 MW) it ranks 20th, against 289,280 MW across all states. The state also has 2,190 scored datacenter candidate sites, 9 of them classed as brownfield sites, averaging 57 on the 0–100 DC Readiness scale.
Where in Tennessee are these sites?
- Rutherford County · 2
- Humphreys County · 1
- Shelby County · 1
- Anderson County · 1
- Hawkins County · 1
- Franklin County · 1
- Rhea County · 1
- McMinn County · 1
- Sullivan County · 1
- Davidson County · 1
All brownfield and retired plant sites in Tennessee
| Site | Former use | Capacity | Retired | County |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnsonville | coal | 1,485 MW | 2017-12-01 | Humphreys |
| Allen | coal | 990 MW | 2018-03-01 | Shelby |
| Bull Run | coal | 950 MW | 2023-09-01 | Anderson |
| John Sevier | coal | 800 MW | 2014-06-01 | Hawkins |
| Franklin (TN) | gas | 510 MW | — | Franklin |
| Watts Bar Fossil | coal | 240 MW | 2011-12-01 | Rhea |
| Bowater Newsprint Calhoun Operation | biomass | 63 MW | 2022-05-01 | McMinn |
| Buffalo Mountain Stage 2 | mine | 27 MW | — | — |
| Domtar Kingsport Mill | biomass | 23 MW | 2006-10-01 | Sullivan |
| Vanderbilt University Power Plant | coal | 16 MW | 2016-03-01 | Davidson |
| MTSU Power Co-Gen Plant | oil | 10 MW | 2016-11-01 | Rutherford |
| Volkswagen Chattanooga | rcra | 10 MW | — | — |
| Middle Point Landfill Gas Recovery | gas | 3 MW | 2011-12-01 | Rutherford |
| Somerville Solar Project | landfill | 3 MW | — | — |
| Music City Solar | landfill | 2 MW | — | — |
| Buffalo Mountain | mine | 2 MW | — | — |
| Knoxville Utilities Board Community Solar | manufacturing | 1 MW | — | — |
| Powerhouse Six Array | superfund | 1 MW | — | — |
| RSI Brightfields One | superfund | 0 MW | — | — |
| Bristol Demolition Landfill | landfill | 0 MW | — | — |
| Binkley Solar Farm | landfill | 0 MW | — | — |
| OAK RIDGE RESERVATION (USDOE) | superfund | 0 MW | — | — |
Frequently asked questions
How many retired power plants are in Tennessee?
GridCensus lists 11 retired power plant sites in Tennessee from EIA-860 retirement records. 10 have a recorded retirement date, 6 of them in 2015 or later.
What is the largest retired power plant or brownfield site in Tennessee?
Johnsonville in New Johnsonville is the largest by recorded capacity, at 1,485.2 MW. It is followed by Allen (990 MW) and Bull Run (950 MW).
Which power plant in Tennessee retired most recently?
Bull Run has the latest recorded retirement date in the state, September 2023, with 950 MW of capacity.
Which county in Tennessee has the most brownfield and retired plant sites?
Rutherford County has the most, with 2, followed by Humphreys County with 1.
How many EPA brownfield sites in Tennessee have completed cleanup?
11 of the 11 EPA-tracked sites listed for Tennessee are recorded as cleanup complete.
Looking for a specific record? The directory lists every brownfield site, A to Z.
More on Tennessee, and states with similar counts
- Datacenter candidate sites in Tennessee· 2,190 sites
- Electric substations in Tennessee· 517 named
- Brownfield candidate sites nationwide
- Brownfield sites by state
- Brownfield sites in Kentucky· 22 sites
- Brownfield sites in New Mexico· 22 sites
- Brownfield sites in Arizona· 23 sites
- Brownfield sites in Oklahoma· 22 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 Tennessee”, https://gridcensus.com/brownfield-sites/tennessee (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 Tennessee 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.