James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant is a coal- and natural gas-fired electrical generation facility in Bucks

Bucks, Alabama

Bucks is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 32. It is located in the northeastern section of the county near the Mobile River, along U.S. Route 43. The James M...

, Mobile County

Mobile County, Alabama

Mobile County[p] is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of a tribe of Indians, the Maubila tribe . As of 2011, its population was 415,704. Its county seat is Mobile, Alabama...

, Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

. It lies on the west bank of the Mobile River

Mobile River

The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Its drainage basin is the...

, using it both for coal delivery as well as for cooling water. The plant was named for James M. Barry, President of Alabama Power Company

Alabama Power Company

Alabama Power Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a company in the southern United States that provides electricity service to 1.3 million homes, businesses, and industries in the southern two-thirds of Alabama. It is one of four U.S...

 from 1949 to 1952.

Design and specification

The Barry Plant has five major coal-fired units, which came online in 1954–1971, with respective generating capacities of 138 MW, 137 MW, 249 MW, 362 MW, and 750 MW (year-around). Five natural gas

Natural gas

Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

-fired units, including three combined cycle

Combined cycle

In electric power generation a combined cycle is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem off the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy, which in turn usually drives electrical generators...

 combustion turbines (173 MWe each of winter capacity) and two combined cycle steam turbine

Steam turbine

A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....

s (193 MWe each of winter capacity), were installed in 2000.

Air

A 2007 survey by the Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

-based Environmental Integrity Project found that the Barry Plant ranked 25th of the top 30 mercury

Mercury (element)

Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...

 emitting power plants in the United States, releasing 711 pounds (322.5 kg) of mercury into the atmosphere. The plant ranked 28th for the amount of nitrogen oxide

Nitrogen oxide

Nitrogen oxide can refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds:* Nitric oxide, also known as nitrogen monoxide, , nitrogen oxide* Nitrogen dioxide , nitrogen oxide...

s released into the atmosphere, with 24,000 tons released. Additionally, the survey found that the plant released a yearly total of 61,000 tons of sulfur dioxide

Sulfur dioxide

Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...

 and 11 million tons of carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

. A company spokesman for Alabama Power, Michael Sznajderman, noted that scrubbers are being installed at all of the company's coal-fired plants, which will reduce emission levels in coming years.

Waste heat

The plant discharges all of its waste heat

Waste heat

Waste heat sometimes called Secondary heat or Low-grade heat refers to heat produced by machines, electrical equipment and industrial processes for which no useful application is found. Energy is often produced by a heat engine, running on a source of high-temperature heat...

 (about twice its electrical output) into the Mobile River

Mobile River

The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Its drainage basin is the...

.