Solar Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

High Coal Stockpiles, Lower Production Forecast For 2025

About 138 million tons of coal – a year’s production in Appalachia – is sitting in stockpiles at power plants across the country.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts those stockpiles will remain high in 2025.

It’s because coal has a hard time competing with natural gas to generate electricity and because wind, solar and battery storage are also eating into its market share.

Power plants received less than half the coal this year that they did in 2008.

Wind and solar are expected to surpass coal this year for the first time.

This is expected to have an impact on production. The energy agency forecasts U.S. coal production will fall below 500 million tons next year.

PSC Gives Longview Power Extension For Gas, Solar Projects

Longview Power, which operates a coal-burning plant near the Pennsylvania border, applied to the PSC in 2020 for a siting certificate to build a gas plant and solar facility.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission has granted an extension to Longview Power to build a natural gas plant and a solar facility in Monongalia County.

Longview Power, which operates a coal-burning plant near the Pennsylvania border, applied to the PSC in 2020 for a siting certificate to build a gas plant and solar facility.

Construction on the project was to have begun by April 2025, but Longview now says the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the US in 2020, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and supply chain disruptions have made that difficult to achieve.

On Tuesday, the PSC granted an extension for Longview to begin construction by April 2029 and to complete the project by April 2034.

Longview plans to build a 1,200-megawatt combined-cycle gas plant, alongside a 70-megawatt solar facility that straddles the state border.

Longview is an independent power producer that supplies electricity to the PJM regional grid.

Longview’s coal plant is adjacent to Mon Power’s Fort Martin Power Station, which includes a coal plant and a solar facility.

Mon Power’s Fort Martin solar facility began operating in January and is the state’s largest. The coal plant is scheduled to retire in 2034.

Mon Power Repurposes Brownfield Sites For Solar Power

On a winding road just up the hill from a shuttered coal plant, Mon Power is now generating electricity from an array of solar panels.

The Rivesville solar facility doesn’t produce as much power as the coal plant once did, nor the ones Mon Power still operates. It is, though, an example of reusing brownfield sites – in this case a coal ash disposal landfill – to produce clean energy in a state dominated by fossil fuels.

Doug Hartman, Mon Power’s director of generation services, says state lawmakers made that possible.

“So this is the Rivesville ash site disposal area for the old Rivesville coal plant, and it retired in 2012,” he said. “Senate Bill 583 gave us an opportunity to put an asset on something that’s a legacy liability, and we’re able to put the solar right on top of the site.”

West Virginia lawmakers passed Senate Bill 583 in 2020. It allows utilities like Mon Power to develop solar on brownfield sites. Mon Power activated its largest project in Monongalia County in January. Last month, it broke ground on another one in Berkeley County. The company will seek approval to build two more near Davis in Tucker County and Weirton in Hancock County.

“You’re using, again, property that like the site here, property that you normally wouldn’t be able to leverage, just to go out and build something on,” he said. “Honestly, that’s where I would like to see all forms of energy, put them on a site that’s already, already out there and is available, not a new greenfield site. West Virginia is too pretty for greenfield site construction.”

The Rivesville site can produce 5.5 megawatts of electricity and Fort Martin about 19. By contrast, Mon Power’s Harrison Power Station can produce nearly 2,000 megawatts, all of it from coal.

Hartman says the coal plants aren’t going anywhere soon. But changing regulations, the age of the plants and the cost of buying coal could shift the calculation. And West Virginia may see yet more solar.

A Youth Football Lawsuit And Rural Appalachians On Solar, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, sports can unite teammates from all different backgrounds. But in the next episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at one way sports can drive us apart.

On this West Virginia Morning, sports can unite teammates from all different backgrounds. But in the next episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at one way sports can drive us apart.

Allegations of discrimination in youth football were raised by a West Virginia lawsuit, highlighting questions about who is allowed to play. Kay spoke with Olobunmi Kusimo Fraser, a lawyer who handled the case, in the latest episode of Us & Them: “Is The Playing Field Fair?”

Also in this episode, new research is examining how rural Appalachians feel about the usage of their land for solar energy. The Allegheny Front, a Pittsburgh-based public radio program that reports on environmental issues in the region, brings us this story.

Plus, the West Virginia Legislature adjourned this year’s second special session Tuesday evening. Reporters Briana Heaney and Caelan Bailey recap what happened at the Capitol.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Maria Young produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Greenbrier County Schools Brings Renewable Energy Online

One thousand solar panels, and close to 80 geothermal wells, are now online to help power and cool Greenbrier County’s school buildings.

Greenbrier County Schools is celebrating the installation of two renewable energy sources for its buildings.

One thousand solar panels, and close to 80 geothermal wells, are now online to help power and cool Greenbrier County’s school buildings.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, Greenbrier Superintendent Jeffery Briant called the solar array the largest for any school system in the state.

“The significant difference it will make in energy cost and energy efficiency, and also the comfort it will provide for our students and teachers and staff is truly remarkable,” he said.

County Board of Education President Jeanie Wyatt touted the budget impact the project will have on the county.

“With our challenges in our budgets and with our finances, it gets very difficult, and one of the challenges there is our energy costs, because every year they continue to grow, and it makes it very, very hard for us to do what we want to do,” Wyatt said. “We don’t have to rely on outside resources for our energy. We’re going to cut our energy costs, but we’re also going to make dividends from it, which will pay for this project, as well as dividends for the county.”

In August 2024, Greenbrier County Schools installed a ground-source heat pump system and the solar array. The technologies are expected to generate a $2 million federal reimbursement, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, and boost energy efficiency.

Mon Power Begins Construction On 3rd Solar Site In State

Mon Power is building a 5.75 megawatt solar facility on 36 acres of former coal ash landfill in Berkeley County.

The company activated its Fort Martin solar facility in January, the state’s largest at 19 megawatts. It is also building one at Rivesville with 5.5 megawatts.

One megawatt is enough to power about 173 households.

“The redevelopment of this site into a clean, renewable energy source is aligned with our commitment to support economic growth in West Virginia as well as our efforts to build a more sustainable future for the communities we serve,” said Dan Rossero, vice president of West Virginia energy generation for Mon Power parent FirstEnergy.

Solar is the fastest growing source of electricity nationwide. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, U.S. solar capacity reached 209 gigawatts in the second quarter.

By comparison, U.S. coal capacity was at 177 gigawatts in April, a decline of nearly half from 2000, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

West Virginia still lags other states in renewable energy development.