The questions we hear most

A combined-cycle energy center that makes electricity from natural gas, on a 508-acre property off Hwy 212 in Rockdale County. The facility and its connections would take up an estimated 45 acres inside the forest. About 298 acres would stay as forest and pasture, and about 165 acres south of the highway would become a community park.

No. No zoning application has been filed, and we won't file one until after the public open houses. The first is Thursday, October 29, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at Restoration Storehouse in Conyers. The layout, buffers, the setback distance, the maximum acreage, sound mitigation, lighting, and what goes in the community park are all still open.

The first open house is Thursday, October 29, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at Restoration Storehouse, 1400 Parker Rd SE, Conyers, GA 30094. Use the entrance at the north end of the building. Everyone is welcome. Get directions.

More open houses will follow, and each one will be posted here. You don't have to wait for it: send your question now and we'll bring the answer with us.

An experienced energy developer that develops and permits large energy projects and works with utilities and communities through every stage. You can meet the team in person at the open houses. The first is Thursday, October 29, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at Restoration Storehouse in Conyers.

No, and no. We've proposed zoning conditions that would prohibit a data center anywhere on the property and prohibit a direct power line to any large private customer. Those conditions would stay with the land no matter who owns it.

All of it goes onto the public grid, the same grid that serves homes and businesses in Rockdale County and across Georgia. None of it would be reserved for a private customer.

Nothing is manufactured here except electricity. 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. Water-treatment and emissions-control materials would be kept in engineered, monitored containment, alongside transformers and electrical equipment like any substation.

Every material on site is reported to Rockdale County Fire and emergency management under federal right-to-know rules. An emergency response plan would be written with the county before the facility operates, and the control room would be staffed 24 hours a day.

The facility can't operate without a federal air permit, reviewed by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division with a public comment period. Emissions would be monitored continuously and reported to the state. A facility like this produces roughly half the CO₂ of a coal plant for the same electricity, with no coal ash.

Very little. Rockdale Energy Center is planned as an air-cooled facility, which uses less than 1% of the water of a traditional water-cooled one. Daily use would be comparable to a golf course, and it would come from the public water system, not from wells, streams, or the river.

We don't have the final answer yet, and we won't guess. A professional sound study is underway, and we'll post the results here before any public hearing. The facility would be designed to meet county noise limits at the property line, with a minimum setback and forest between it and any home. The setback distance is still being set. It and the noise limits would be written into the zoning.

The facility would sit inside the forest in the northern part of the property, away from Hwy 212. Renderings are being prepared and will be posted here before any public hearing.

Construction would bring workers and deliveries to Hwy 212 for about three years, and a traffic plan would be coordinated with the county. Once operating: about 30 employees and a handful of deliveries a week.

We won't make promises about what any home is worth. What we can commit to is what goes in the zoning: a minimum setback (the distance is still being set), the forest buffer, no cooling-tower plumes, and noise limits at the property line.

Based on preliminary estimates, in the first full year of operation: about $15.6 million to Rockdale County Public Schools and about $14.2 million to Rockdale County, assuming no tax abatement. That amount steps down gradually as the equipment ages, for an estimated total of more than $300 million over 15 years. Add about 350 construction jobs at peak, about 30 permanent careers, and a proposed community park of about 165 acres.

No. The project would be privately financed. It would not use county funds or require a local tax increase.

Not general industrial zoning. We're asking for a planned unit development, or PUD, a zoning Rockdale County uses to write rules for a single property. Working with the county, we spell out exactly what can be built, where, how large, and what is prohibited. Those rules are voted on by the Board of Commissioners and stay with the land no matter who owns it.

What we've offered so far: no data center, no direct connection to any single large power user, a minimum setback (the distance is still being set), a maximum acreage for the facility (the number is still being set), noise limits at the property line, the forest kept as a buffer, no battery storage, and no other industrial use.

After the open houses, we'd file a rezoning application with Rockdale County. That starts a public process: planning staff review, then Planning Commission and Board of Commissioners hearings where anyone can speak. The target for a county decision is March 2027. The facility would also need state and federal environmental permits, which have their own public comment periods.

You don't have to wait for a hearing. Share your input now, or come to an open house. The first is Thursday, October 29, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at Restoration Storehouse in Conyers.