Old power plant: Energy company turning landfill into solar field as it looks for buyer
Solar panels could provide electricity from an ash landfill that once served the former R. Paul Smith Power Station near Williamsport.
Meanwhile, FirstEnergy Corp. continues to seek a potential buyer for the decommissioned power plant. The facility sits near the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park across the Potomac River from the former landfill in West Virginia.
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For some two decades, material from the landfill was used in making cement.
FirstEnergy said it harvested 3.1 million tons of ash that was sold to two major cement manufacturers to fuel cement kilns.
This week, FirstEnergy announced the landfill's closing.
Allegheny Energy Supply Co., a subsidiary of FirstEnergy, has 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 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,” Mark Vindivich, a manager in FirstEnergy’s environmental department who oversaw the project, said in a news release.
The company began working with the state on a plan to permanently close the landfill in 2015, three years after shutting down the R. Paul Smith Power Station, the release states.
The company said it has removed infrastructure, such as piping and engineered liner, while decommissioning two dams on the property.
In June, FirstEnergy’s request to end environmental monitoring under the solid waste permit was approved by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. FirstEnergy said it's the first time a company has earned this type of approval in West Virginia.
The landfill full of ash from old power plant will provide solar energy
Mon Power, also a subsidiary of FirstEnergy, intends to build a 6-megawatt solar facility at the 26-acre site.
According to an email from FirstEnergy, a 6-megawatt solar facility will power more than 800 homes per year.
By way of comparison, the company said its coal-fired Fort Martin Power Station in Maidsville, W.Va., along the Monongahela River, produces 1,098 megawatts and can power roughly 650,000 homes.
The site in Berkeley County, W.Va., is part of Mon Power's plans to build five utility-scale solar facilities, totaling 50 megawatts of renewable power.
Mon Power and Potomac Edison, another FirstEnergy subsidiary, are accepting West Virginia customer subscriptions to purchase power from these facilities through solar renewable energy credits.
FirstEnergy wants to sell decommissioned R. Paul Smith power plant
At the same time, the company still intends to sell the decommissioned R. Paul Smith power plant.
The plant dates to 1923, when Williamsport Power Co. began operating the Williamsport Power Station, according to an email from Will Boye, FirstEnergy spokesman.
Soon after the station came online, Williamsport Power Co. became part of Potomac Edison. The plant was later renamed after Potomac Edison’s first president, R. Paul Smith.
The facility was decommissioned in 2012.
Since then, FirstEnergy has complied with safety and environmental obligations at the property, Boye wrote.
"We continue to search for potential buyers that may have an interest in reutilizing the property," he wrote.
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Last year, the company removed a deenergized transmission line that ran from the plant in Maryland across the river to a substation in West Virginia.
"The line had been installed and operated only to provide service and interconnection to the plant, and removing it addressed access, reliability, maintenance and employee safety concerns associated with the line terminating on the roof of the plant," Boye wrote.
In addition, a deenergized subtransmission line across the river was removed, and three existing subtransmission lines were moved away from the plant.
The work was finished in late October.
To learn more or subscribe to the solar program, visit www.firstenergycorp.com/WVSolar, or call 800-505-7283 to enroll by phone.
Mon Power serves about 395,000 customers in 34 West Virginia counties.
Potomac Edison serves about 275,000 customers in seven counties in Maryland and 151,000 customers in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.
Mike Lewis covers business, the economy and other issues. Follow Mike on Twitter: @MiLewis.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: FirstEnergy to put solar panels on old ash landfill in West Virginia
