Muskegon, MI: 1949-2016 Lost/500mw B.C. Cobb Power Plant

(3D Satellite)

It had been bigger than this:

• Plant Nameplate Capacity: 313 MW
• Units and In-Service Dates: 156 MW (1956), 156 MW (1957)

[gem]

It was completed in 1949, turned off in 2016 and torn down in 2020. "At the height of its operation, when it was producing 500 megawatts of electricity, it took 120 employees to keep the Cobb plant running." (It is interesting that GEM specifies 313mw but mlive specifies 500mw.) It continued to expand for 10 more years after 1948. The stack was 650' tall. "The 300-acre site is now owned by Verplank Dock Co., a port terminal operator and construction aggregate supplier based in Ferrysburg that intends to consolidate some of its operations there." [mlive]

I'm saving some satellite images since it was torn down.

3D Satellite

3D Satellite

The five smokestacks have been replaced with one big one. (The new stack was 680'. [mibiz])

LakeShoreMuseum

mlive-2014
"To overcome foundation problems for the huge structure, 160 pipe piles about 200 feet long will be driven to bedrock. That's about six miles of piling. After each piece of pipe piling has been driven, the earth and water will be blown out with compressed air and the pipe then filled with concrete. The pipe piles are steel tubes 23 inches in diameter. They were manufactured for bomb casings and converted to the present use." The first two units went online in 1942 and produced 120mw. They evidently added a third 60mw unit, and then in 1957 and 1958 they added two 156mw units. (The article claims the plant maxed out at 1.5gw by 1956, but I can't reconcile that number with other numbers that are in the article. I think the max was 0.5gw.)

ConsumersEnergy via WGVUnews, Apr 2016
It built the Jackson Gas Plant to help replace the seven coal-fired units that were shutdown. 

Randy Young posted three photos with the comment: "B.C. Cobb decommissioning Muskegon Mi."

1

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3

Note that the smokestack is shorter and there is a little yellow machine working on top of it.

EnergyRenewalPartners

This site has several demolition photos and four demolition videos.