The Northern Virginia Daily

June 18, 2009

Officials consider proposal for plant

By Linwood Outlaw III

FRONT ROYAL -- Town officials are weighing a proposal from an alternative energy company to build a local solar power plant that would potentially be the largest of its kind on the East Coast.

Representatives of SolAVerde Inc. pitched their plan to Town Manager J. Michael Graham and the Town Council at a work session on Monday afternoon.

Graham said the facility, which could range from 150 to 200 acres, is being eyed for construction in the Happy Creek corridor.

"[The location is] zoned industrial, [and] that will allow this usage. And the key is, it's next to our brand new substation that they can plug into and route that energy to our grid system," Graham said. "Right now, it's in the conceptual stage ... [SolAVerde is trying to gather] the financing [for the facility] as we speak."

SolAVerde officials said the facility would require no capital investment from the town. The company estimates it will need to invest at least $200 million toward financing the project. Graham said SolAVerde may also want to create an assembly plant to manufacture solar panels for distribution along the East Coast.

"And why that's important is because with the [Virginia] Inland Port so close, they can [distribute the panels to] anywhere in the country," he said. "Our location is perfect due to the proximity to the inland port."

SolAVerde representatives say the facility would result in immediate energy savings for the town and create new local jobs. "The key benefit is that we can almost become energy independent. ... It's green. It's renewable. It's clean," Graham said. "And, it can be produced for a much lesser cost for our citizens because we [would not] have to pay the federal surcharges for the power."

More than $170 million is spent each year in research and development on photovoltaics and concentrating solar power, technologies that have the greatest potential to reach cost competitiveness by 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Among things town officials would have to determine, Graham said, is how the company will successfully connect to Front Royal's power grid. "They'll be producing a lot more power than what we use right now," Graham said. "We presently use 42 megawatts. And, this plant will start [rising] up to that level and then go past that to about 70 [megawatts], in which the balance of that can be sold out onto the grid."

Town Council members seemed optimistic about the facility's potential.

"It would provide clean, solar electricity for the town. ... And, then we would have surplus electrical power that we could sell on the grid," Councilman Thomas H. Sayre said. "It's clean, solar electricity that would generate jobs here in Warren County. It would be quite an investment. That would be quite a big jolt to our local economy. ... Again, we need to see more of the details [as far as] what would be the town's commitment and things of that nature. There's pros and cons with everything."

Another plus, Sayre said, is that the panels will likely "sit low."

"If the panels sat high in the air, they would be an eyesore. But, if they sit real low to the ground, which it appears that they do, that would be a positive," Sayre said.

Vice Mayor Bret W. Hrbek said SolAVerde's proposal is "super exciting."