Governor Morrisey, and the super-majority GOP, are getting out the wrenches and oil cans to grease the gears of West Virginia’s power grids with the governor’s “50 by 50” energy plan.
Currently, our power generation capacity is about 15 gigawatts in West Virginia. The 50 by 50 plan aims to build the infrastructure for West Virginia to be generating and transmitting 50 gigawatts of energy by 2050.
Officially, this should be an “all-in” program, utilizing fossil fuels readily available in the state (e.g. coal and natural gas), nuclear, bio-fuels hydro-electricity plants, and renewable sources (e.g. solar and wind). The legislature will be busy this season developing plans to implement this plan, and working out the funding.
Let me toss some nuts, bolts and a few gears into the machinery: make it 50 by 50 by 55. In other words, each county should be contributing to this energy mix, with the geography and geology resources that each has. But, let us also keep West Virginia Wild and Wonderful, rather than looking like the 19th and early 20th century faded photographs of coal towns and barren mountain slopes.
To this end, build coal plants close to reliable coal fields, natural gas plants near gas wells, packet nuclear facilities as part of data centers, hydro-plants would be tricky as we want to avoid eliminating free-flowing rivers, wind turbines on ridges with consistent wind currents, and solar fields on large open spaces.
So, maybe Hardy County should be inventorying open spaces, not necessarily agricultural land, but land that is already removed from farming. For instance, without pointing fingers or stepping too heavily on toes, we have a number of large, flat buildings for factories and stores, with large parking lots. With the right support structures, solar panels could be added to the roofs (assuming they were constructed sufficiently to bear the weight), and certainly over the parking areas. Not only would this capture the suns energy, but it would shade the roofs and parking lots. Shade would reduce the heating of those buildings and parking areas. Those properties would then reduce the energy needed to cool them in summer; and the asphalt parking lots would be less of a heat absorbing material that radiates hot air long into summer nights. I might even be able to get back into my vehicle after shopping, enjoying a movie or bowling without burning my hand on the door handle that has been basking in the hot sun.
Oscar Larson
Baker, WV
