West Virginia Executive Spring/Summer 2020 | Page 56

$600,000 during each year of operation to the county commission and the Harrison County Board of Education. Similarly, the Brooke County plant will provide $1 million to the county on the commencement of construction, as well as yearly contributions of $433,000 to the county commission and $167,000 to the Brooke County Board of Education. In addition to having a smaller carbon footprint than traditional coal plants, the two facilities will also have a legitimately smaller footprint on the state’s land, accounting for roughly 25 acres each. “In West Virginia, most people are accustomed to the coalfired power plants that have stacks in excess of 1,000 feet. In a natural gas-fired power plant, a stack is between 180-200 feet,” says Wilkerson. “The older, larger coal-fired facilities take up a great deal of acreage. It’s not an exaggeration to say that one of these power plants, the main buildings, will be smaller than the coal piles that feed the coal-fired power plants.” A number of other gas-fired plants are being built and planned for West Virginia, western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio because of the area’s available and affordable supply of natural gas due to proximity to the Marcellus and Utica shale plays. “Why West Virginia? It’s because you have significant transmission lines from previous existing industrial plants,” says Wilkerson. “We have a huge amount of natural gas with good pipelines in place, especially in the northern part of the state, and a workforce that knows how to build power plants and large industrial facilities. All of that works very well together.” • Photo by Harrison County Power. 54 WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE