West Virginia must become energy independent and we have to do it with clean energy technology.  To accomplish this, Sharon Spencer believes the future is clean coal technology, natural gas and wind energy. 

Click on a photo to lean more about the technology:

CLEAN COAL

The West Virginia Energy Opportunities Document, which is the State's energy plan, and the West Virginia Division of Energy recommend to pursue clean coal technology to meet the State's goal of freedom from foreign energy imports by 2030.  The goal is to displace 1.3 billion gallons of oil by 2030, 60% of West Virginia's oil use, which is the current level of oil imports.

From the preamble to the West Virginia Energy Opportunity Document

• Using advanced coal technologies, coal can be gasified and liquefied, representing the most viable option for the nation to transition away from imported oil
• Conventional oil and gas reserves could be materially depleted in decades, coal reserves are plentiful.
• West Virginia's high BTU coal is ideally suited to advance coal technologies such as those to be employed by integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants.
• Coal can be a substitute for liquid transportation fuels and pipeline natural gas.
• Advanced coal technologies provide the same level of environmental beneficiation as pulverized coal plants with SOx, NOx and mercury controlled technologies applied.
• Advanced coal plans would also be able to capture and sequester CO2.
• While CO2 sequestration technology is still in the experimental/demonstration stage and has not been proven to be financially and technically viable yet for existing plants, there is guarded optimism that current studies and experiments will refine and prove sequestration technology to be technically feasible, financially sound and environmentally safe.
• As is the case with unconventional resources, advanced coal technologies will need to be competitive with conventional energy source.
• The largest contributor to the goal could be coal-to-liquids (CTL) plants.
• A 20,000 barrel-a-day CTL plant would cost more than $2 billion to construct.  It has been assumed that with certain oil price level (e.g. and upward) it would become economically attractive to construct a CTL plant.
• Commercially proven technologies and oil price stability are necessary to attract private sector investments in CTL plants.  Many would argue that our current energy situation would warrant a significant federal role in ushering and a coal-based economy.  National consensus has not been reached on the issue.

We firmly believe that enhanced energy development can be accomplished consistent with environmental stewardship.

Sequestration Work Underway with the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey:

Value added carbon collection and storage

• Screen target for value added processes
• Calculating Storage Volumes
• Calculating potential oil/gas recovery
• Assembly a cost model
• Performing scenario analysis
• Assembling relational data base

Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships

West Virginia's National Energy Technology Laboratory, the only DOE national laboratory dedicated to fossil energy, supports Regional Sequestration Partnerships, West Virginia is represented in these partnerships in the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (www.scarbon.org) and the Midwest Carbon Sequestration Partnership (http://216.109.210.162/Default.aspx).

To learn more about coal, clean coal technology and what it means to West Virginia, visit the West Virginia Coal Association at http://www.wvcoal.com.

NATURAL GAS

Did you know that 900 of the next 1000 US power plants will use natural gas?   Domestically produced and readily available to end-users through the existing utility infrastructure, natural gas has also become increasingly popular as an alternative transportation fuel.

A key natural gas development in the state is the 6,000-foot-deep Marcellus Shale rock formation, believed to contain more than 50 trillion cubic-feet of recoverable natural gas. West Virginia’s underground natural gas storage capacity accounts for about 6 percent of the U.S. total. In addition to West Virginia’s natural gas production, state infrastructure handles three times that amount from other sources.

The state is an important supplier to the Northeast during the winter months when natural gas demand peaks.
(sources: www.wvcommerce.org and www.energy.gov)

To learn more about natural gas and what it means to West Virginia, visit the Independent Oil and Gas Association of WV at http://www.iogawv.com/history.cfm, the WV Department of Commerce at http://www.wvcommerce.org/energy/fossil_energy/gas.aspx or the U.S. Department of Energy at http://www.energy.gov/energysources/naturalgas.htm.

WIND ENERGY

The U.S. Department of Energy has determined that West Virginia has significant wind development opportunities. Two wind projects are operational totaling 330 MW of capacity.

Wind maps
Statewide wind maps available through the W.Va. Division of Energy provide estimates on wind power and wind speed. Wind speed is measured at 30, 50, 70 and 100 meters from ground level. The wind power map characterizes the wind class regions in West Virginia. Typically areas above class five have adequate wind for commercial development.

• Wind speed at 30 meters 
• Wind Power at 50 meters 
• Wind speed at 70 meters 
• Wind speed at 100 meters 

The state of West Virginia proposes to continue promotion of wind power to industry and the public with continued public meetings and promotional materials. For more information, call (800) 982-3386 or (304) 558-2234.

(source: www.wvcommerce.org)

For additional information on renewable wind energy and what it means to West Virginia, visit the WV Department of Commerce at http://www.wvcommerce.org/energy/renewable_energy/wind.aspx, the US Department of Energy at http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/astate_template.asp?stateab=wv or http://www.energy.gov/energysources/wind.htm.