Dominion, Virginia Tech Partner To Address
Climate Change Issue For Power Stations
Dominion provides $500,000 toward groundbreaking Virginia Tech research
Test site in Southwest Virginia selected to store carbon dioxide emissions
Project complements other Dominion-supported efforts on climate change
RICHMOND, Va., -- Dominion (NYSE: D), one of the nation’s largest energy
producers, will provide $500,000 to the Virginia Center for Coal & Energy
Research at Virginia Tech to help the center find a way to keep carbon dioxide
from entering the atmosphere.
The Virginia Tech center is planning a full-scale
storage demonstration project in Southwest Virginia. The additional
funding will make it possible for this Virginia Tech research program to qualify
for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.
"I am very pleased Dominion is greatly expanding its
support of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research and the carbon
storage project," said
Dr. Michael Karmis, director of the center. "We at VCCER believe
this project represents an important step in carbon management. Dominion's
support is invaluable in this effort moving forward."
"With no proven
technology currently available to utilities, this proposal presents a unique
opportunity to make history," said Mark F. McGettrick,
president and chief executive officer, Dominion Generation. "We
are proud to be associated with Virginia Tech, one of the leading research
universities in the country."
Dominion is now supporting project development
spanning the carbon dioxide emissions management spectrum – separation,
capture and sequestration. The
company announced last month that it is hosting a large-scale coal gasification
test facility and research center at its Brayton Point Power Station in Massachusetts.
The test facility, owned by GreatPoint Energy of Cambridge, Mass., will produce
pipeline-quality natural gas and a pure stream of CO2 as a byproduct of coal
that could be captured for storage.
The company also is moving forward with
energy conservation and renewable generation projects as part of its comprehensive
strategy to ensure that Virginia has adequate supplies of reliable, affordable
and environmentally responsible electricity to meet the rapidly growing demand.
Dominion
operates fossil fuel-fired power stations in Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana,
Illinois, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The
company has proposed a 585-megawatt power station in Southwest Virginia that
will use circulating fluidized bed technology to burn coal, waste coal and
waste wood to generate electricity. The U.S. Department of Energy recognizes
the circulating fluidized bed process as an effective clean-coal technology;
it mixes the fuel with limestone prior to burning it, resulting in fewer emissions
of air pollutants than a conventional coal-fired power station.
The Wise County,
Virginia, station will be built to allow the installation of equipment to capture
carbon dioxide emissions when such a technology becomes commercially available. The
company is also spending more than $3 billion on projects across its power
station fleet to significantly reduce emissions of regulated pollutants such
as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury.
Dominion is one of the nation's
largest producers of energy, with a portfolio of more than 26,500 megawatts
of generation and 7,800 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline. Dominion
also owns and operates the nation's largest underground natural gas storage
system with about 960 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail
energy customers in 11 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the
company's Web site at http://www.dom.com.
