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The United States Department of Energy has scheduled two upcoming virtual briefings on energy projects aimed at decarbonization in Jackson and Nicholas counties.
The United States Department of Energy has scheduled two upcoming virtual briefings on energy projects aimed at decarbonization in Jackson and Nicholas counties.
The U.S. Department of Energy has scheduled virtual community briefings for this month on two decarbonization projects it has selected for over $200 million in potential support.
The DOE will hold a briefing from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. April 16 that will include an overview of Appalachian and mid-Atlantic projects which the agency selected to begin award negotiations for as part of an industrial decarbonization demonstrations program.
Those projects include deployment by Constellium of up to $75 million for a zero-carbon aluminum casting plant to be the first of its kind in the U.S. at its Ravenswood facility in Jackson County.
The DOE announced a potential federal cost share of up to $75 million to support the project.
The award was part of up to $6 billion for 33 projects across more than 20 states funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act to decarbonize energy-intensive industries like aluminum, cement, steel and glass.
Constellium spokesperson Teresa Kerns indicated the company expects to invest roughly $80 million to match the federal investment over the next four to five years. Initial project startup of the first new cast center is slated for late 2026, with a second new cast center startup planned for mid-2028.
Kerns said the project community benefits plan includes a new training and wellness center for all employees and onsite child care for employees. But Kerns declined to share the plan, saying it’s too early to include details as the plan will be negotiated with the Department of Energy as part of the selection process in coming months.
Nicholas County project
Selectee Nicholas County Solar Project LLC, a subsidiary of utility-scale solar and energy storage project development company Savion LLC, has proposed a 250-megawatt solar energy and 75-megawatt battery storage project that would produce enough clean electricity to power roughly 39,000 West Virginia homes.
Savion spokesperson Johnna Guinty noted the project is estimated to be completed in 2028 on the old Wildcat mine near Summersville. The Department of Energy said a community benefits plan project developers submitted included an expectation of 400 construction and four operations jobs to be created through the project.
When asked for the community benefits plan, Guinty said in an email there was “no specific plan available to provide at this stage.”
The project funding announcements came last month, supported by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021 and 2022, respectively, after passage through a then-Democratic-controlled Congress.
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