Arkansas Power and Light founder Harvey Couch made a deal in 1913 to purchase sawdust – the company’s first fuel source – to burn and power a steam-powered turbine and send power through a 20-mile transmission line to customers in Malvern and Arkadelphia. That was the beginning of what would become Entergy Corporation, an integrated energy company engaged in electric power production, transmission and retail distribution operations across four service territories for 3 million customers. A little more than 10 years later, Mr. Couch’s Sterlington natural gas-powered plant in north Louisiana was placed online in November 1925. As the demand for electricity grew, so did the company’s fleet of power generation resources. Couch built Remmel Dam, the first hydroelectric dam on the Ouachita River, near Hot Springs in 1924. Just upstream in 1931 came Carpenter Dam, and both dams still generate emission-free power today.

For 62 years the twin boilers and smokestack of the Moses Power Plant were an imposing landmark on the horizon just west of Forrest City, Ark. As of Dec. 1, the 231-acre site is, once again, an open field, save for a substation.

Mitsubishi Power and Entergy will collaborate to bring decarbonization projects to Entergy’s utility businesses in Arkansas, Louisiana, including the separate jurisdiction of New Orleans, Mississippi and Texas.