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
Calgary electricity retailer urges government to scrap overhaul of power market
CALGARY - Jason Kenney's government is facing renewed pressure to cancel a massive overhaul of Alberta's power market that one player says will needlessly spike costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Nick Clark, who owns the Calgary-based electricity retailer Spot Power, has sent the Alberta government an open letter urging it to walk away from the electricity model proposed by the former NDP government.
"How can you encourage new industry to open up when one of their raw material costs will increase so dramatically?" Clark said. "The capacity market will add more costs to the consumer and it will…
