Dominion to switch 3 plants to biomass

VIRGINIA - Major power producer Dominion Resources Inc's Virginia unit said it plans to convert three power stations from using coal to biomass.

If the conversion is approved, the plants could begin burning biomass in 2013, it said in a statement.

The company said the total economic impact over the 30-year life of the stations would be more than $350 million, including $30 million in local taxes and $180 million for the creation of more than 300 hundred jobs in the forestry and trucking industries.

Once converted, the power plants will generate 50 megawatts MW each and operate all the time, compared with the current peak production of 63 MW.

Biomass, a renewable energy source, uses biological material to generate electricity or heat. The company said the stations would use waste wood left from timbering operations to produce fuel.

Dominion also added that the fuel switch would meet the new emissions standards established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and reduce nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury and particulate emissions.

The power stations, which started operations in 1992, are located in Altavista, Hopewell and Southampton County.

Related News

Report: Solar ITC Extension Would Be ‘Devastating’ for US Wind Market

WASHINGTON - The booming U.S. wind industry faces an uncertain future in the 2020s. Few factors are more important than the fate of the solar ITC.

An extension of the solar investment tax credit (ITC) at its 30 percent value would be “devastating” to the future U.S. wind market, according to a new Wood Mackenzie report.

The U.S. is on track to add a record 14.6 gigawatts of new wind capacity in 2020, and nearly 39 gigawatts during a three-year installation boom from 2019 to 2021, according to Wood Mackenzie’s 2019 North America Wind Power Outlook.

But the market’s trajectory begins to look…

READ MORE
wind power worker

US power coalition demands action to deal with Coronavirus

READ MORE

solar panels

Energy freedom and solar’s strategy for the South

READ MORE

hydrogen electricity

Green hydrogen, green energy: inside Brazil's $5.4bn green hydrogen plant

READ MORE

5g electricity

Is 5G a waste of electricity? Experts say it's complicated

READ MORE