UNC's Coal-Fired Power Plant

UNC Chapel Hill is the only institution of higher learning in North Carolina still operating a coal-burning power plant. The Cameron Avenue Cogeneration Facility, which relies on both coal and fracked gas, is located in the heart of Chapel Hill.

Coal-fired power plants threaten our ecosystems from cradle to grave. UNC Chapel Hill sources its coal from Appalachia, where damaging mining practices poison streams critical to the survival of a variety of wildlife, including the Big Sandy crayfish, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Living near coal power plants has been associated with neurological problems, respiratory disease and lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and premature death. Coal-fired power plants also produce coal ash, which can contaminate our waterways and drinking water supplies.

The worsening climate crisis is a long-term threat posed by power plants that burn fossil fuels, including coal, crude oil and fracked gas. Coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel we can burn. According to the UN, we have less than 10 years to avoid climate catastrophe.

It's not enough to reduce our emissions. We need to eliminate them. No Coal UNC supports a just transition to clean, renewable energy as soon as possible.

Timeline:

1895: UNC first opens a power plant where Phillips Hall is today

1940: UNC builds a new plant on the west end of Cameron Avenue

1980s: UNC installs boilers to the Cogeneration Facility

2010: UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp pledges to be coal free by 2020

2012: UNC reneges on pledge, adopts a “wait and see” approach

2016: UNC announces new goal to be greenhouse gas-neutral by 2050

2019: A burner restoration project enables an increase in natural gas usage