Powering Rockdale County
Rockdale Energy Center is a proposed combined-cycle energy center off Hwy 212. It is early. Nothing is final, no application has been filed, and we are asking the community to help shape the plan first.
- 508-acre property
- Conceptual facility area
- Proposed community park
Conceptual layout. It will change. Explore the map
These are current estimates. They will change as studies come back, and we will update them here when they do.
Have a question? Ask it now, before the open house.
Send it through the form and we'll answer you by email, usually within two business days. Common questions get added to the Questions page, and we'll bring the answers to the October 29 open house. Asking ahead means you get a real answer, not a wait at a table.
Nothing has been filed, approved, or built.
Multiple open houses will be held. The first is Thursday, October 29. We won't file a rezoning application until after they're held, so what we hear can shape what gets filed.
First open house
Everyone is welcome. Bring your questions.
- When
- Thursday, October 29
5:00 to 8:00 PM - Where
- Restoration Storehouse
1400 Parker Rd SE
Conyers, GA 30094 - Entrance
- North end of the building
What's fixed
The location, and the kind of facility: a combined-cycle energy center fueled by natural gas.
What's still open
The layout, buffers and screening, the setback distance, the maximum acreage, lighting, sound mitigation, construction traffic routes, and what goes in the community park.
What happens with your input
Everything sent through this site goes to the project team. We read it, and we bring it to the open houses.
It makes electricity and sends it to the public grid.
Rockdale Energy Center would generate power using combined-cycle technology, the same kind that already supplies more of Georgia's electricity than any other source. It makes electricity twice from the same fuel, which is what makes it so efficient.
- Natural gas arrives by underground pipeline and spins a turbine to make electricity.
- The leftover heat is captured and used to make steam.
- The steam spins a second turbine. More electricity, no extra fuel. The steam is then cooled with air, not water.
What it is, and what it is not
A power generator
It adds electricity to the same grid that serves Rockdale homes and businesses. It doesn't draw power off it.
A data center
No data center would be allowed on this property, and none of the power would be set aside for one. We've proposed writing both into the zoning.
A battery storage site
No battery containers are part of this proposal.
A rulebook written for this one property
We are not asking for general industrial zoning, which would open the property to a long list of uses. We're asking for a planned unit development, or PUD: a zoning used to write rules for a single property.
Under it, we work with Rockdale County to spell out exactly what can be built here, where, how large, and what can never be built. The Board of Commissioners votes on those rules themselves, and they stay with the land no matter who owns it.
What we've offered to put in the rulebook so far
What it would allow
- One electric generating facility.With its connections. Today's estimate is about 45 acres. A maximum acreage is still being set; once it is, it goes in the zoning.
- A minimum setback from every neighbor.The distance is still being set. Once it is, it goes in the zoning.
- The existing forest kept as a buffer.Plus a landscaping plan approved by the county.
- Noise limits at the property line.Verified by an independent sound study.
- The park, in writing.About 165 acres south of Hwy 212 set aside as a community park, made binding through the zoning conditions.
What it would prohibit
- No data center of any kind.Not on any part of the 508 acres.
- No private power customer.No direct connection to a data center or any single large user. Power goes to the shared grid only.
- No expansion.Nothing beyond the approved acreage.
- No other industrial use.Now or later.
- No battery storage.None is part of this proposal, and the zoning would not allow one to be added later.
This list isn't finished. The open houses are where the rest of it gets written.
Rockdale has every reason to ask hard questions about safety.
We know what this community went through in 2024. Any new industrial neighbor should expect tougher questions because of it, and should answer them before asking for a vote. This is where we'd start.
What would you want to see in a safety plan? Tell us.
- Nothing is made here except electricity.No chemical manufacturing and no chemical warehousing.
- The gas is never stored.Natural gas arrives by underground pipeline and is used as it arrives, so there is no gas storage on site. The only fuel kept on the property is in the small tanks built into the backup generators.
- Every material on site is reported.Water-treatment and emissions-control materials are kept in engineered, monitored containment and reported to Rockdale County Fire and emergency management under federal right-to-know rules.
- An emergency plan written with the county.Developed with Rockdale County Fire, not handed to it, before the facility operates.
- Watched around the clock.A control room staffed 24 hours a day, automatic gas shut-off valves, built-in fire suppression, and emissions monitored continuously and reported to Georgia EPD.
What Rockdale would get
Tax estimates use current county and school millage rates and a preliminary project cost, and assume no tax abatement or incentive. The amount is highest in the first year and steps down gradually as the equipment ages. The estimated total is more than $300 million over the first 15 years.
Proposed: a community park of about 165 acres
All project land south of Hwy 212 would become a community park, built by the project for Rockdale County. Ideas we've heard so far: walking and nature trails, ball fields, or open space left as it is. What goes in it is still open. See it on the map.
Revenue without the strain
The facility would add no students to the schools and use very little county service. Once operating, that means about 30 employees and a handful of deliveries a week.
Cooled with air, not water
It would use less than 1% of the water of a water-cooled facility. That water would come from the public system, not from wells, streams, or the river.
Why this property
A facility like this can only go where two things already exist: a high-voltage transmission line and a major natural gas pipeline. This property sits between both.
That keeps new construction short and mostly on site, and it's why the facility can sit deep inside the forest instead of along the road.
What's on the map
Conceptual layout. It will change. The facility area, transmission line, and pipeline are shown in approximate locations.
The map couldn't load. In words: the 508-acre property sits on both sides of Hwy 212. The conceptual facility area is inside the forest north of the highway, the proposed community park is all project land south of it, an existing transmission line runs to the northwest, and an existing natural gas pipeline runs to the southeast.
How a decision gets made, and where you come in
Every step below has a public part. Nothing is built unless all of them are completed. Dates are targets and may shift with the county's schedule.
-
Happening now
Listening and studies
Public open houses, and the studies that answer the open questions.
- Questions welcome now, through the form, ahead of the open house
- First open house: Thursday, October 29, 5:00 to 8:00 PM
Restoration Storehouse, 1400 Parker Rd SE, Conyers - More open houses to follow
- Sound, environmental, wildlife, and cultural studies underway
- After the open houses
Application
A planned unit development (PUD) rezoning application to Rockdale County. Not filed until the open houses are done.
- Target: decision in March 2027
County hearings
Planning staff review, then Planning Commission and Board of Commissioners hearings. Anyone can speak.
- If approved
State air permit
A Georgia EPD review of about a year, with its own public notice and comment period.
- Target: 2031
Operation
Roughly three years of construction, beginning only after every approval.
Tell us what you think, before anything is filed.
Send your questions now so we can bring answers to the October 29 open house. Concerns, ideas for the community park, rules you'd want written into the zoning: all of it is welcome. We read and answer every message.