Berkeley
County property to be repurposed for new West Virginia solar program
FAIRMONT, W.Va., Aug. 15,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) has
completed the closure of an ash landfill for the former R.
Paul Smith Power Station in
Berkeley County, West Virginia,
successfully paving the way to repurpose the 26-acre property for a
planned utility-scale solar facility.
Allegheny Energy Supply Company, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy,
recently received approval from the West Virginia Department of
Environmental Protection to end environmental monitoring at the
landfill after permanently closing the facility by removing all
regulated materials. The landfill's closure was the conclusion of a
successful 20-year effort to beneficially reuse the plant's ash
byproduct in cement manufacturing. FirstEnergy harvested 3.1
million tons of ash that was sold to two major cement manufacturers
to fuel their cement kilns.
Located across the Potomac River from the R. Paul Smith property in Maryland, the Berkeley County site is one of five locations
where Mon Power, one of FirstEnergy's two electric companies in
West Virginia, plans to build a
solar facility as part of a new West
Virginia solar program.
"The reclamation and closure of this former landfill has
generated a positive economic impact for our company, and as the
future home for one of our solar projects in West Virginia, it symbolizes our efforts to
build a brighter and more sustainable future for the communities we
serve," said Mark Vindivich, a
manager in FirstEnergy's environmental department who oversaw the
project.
The company began working with the state on a plan to close the
landfill in 2015, three years after closure of the R. Paul Smith Power Station. Activities included
removing infrastructure such as piping and engineered liner while
decommissioning two dams on the property. In June 2022, FirstEnergy's request to end
environmental monitoring under the solid waste permit was approved
by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection,
marking the first time a company has earned this type of approval
in West Virginia.
Mon Power intends to build a six-megawatt solar facility at the
26-acre site as part of a plan to construct five utility-scale
solar facilities, totaling 50 megawatts of renewable generation, to
help make West Virginia more
attractive for business development. Mon Power and Potomac Edison
are currently accepting West
Virginia customer subscriptions to purchase power from these
facilities through solar renewable energy credits (SRECs). To learn
more or subscribe to the solar program, visit
www.firstenergycorp.com/WVSolar, or call 1-800-505-7283 to enroll
by phone.
Mon Power serves about 395,000 customers in 34 West Virginia counties. Follow Mon Power at
www.mon-power.com, on Twitter @MonPowerWV, and on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/MonPowerWV.
Potomac Edison serves about 275,000 customers in seven counties
in Maryland and 151,000 customers
in the Eastern Panhandle of West
Virginia. Follow Potomac Edison at www.potomacedison.com, on
Twitter @PotomacEdison, and on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/PotomacEdison.
FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and
operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form
one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems,
serving customers in Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West
Virginia, Maryland and
New York. The company's
transmission subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of
transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic
regions. Follow FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com and
on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.