Clean Coal Technology

Dominion is constructing an advanced clean-coal facility in Southwest Virginia. This station, called the Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, will utilize equipment that captures carbon dioxide emissions, once such controls become commercially available.

Dominion also is partnering with the Virginia Center for Coal & Energy Research at Virginia Tech on a project to demonstrate carbon dioxide injection into coal seams that cannot be mined. If this technology proves workable, it could have major benefits for coal-fired power stations throughout the Appalachian region — including the Virginia City plant.

Additionally, the station will use advanced circulating fluidized-bed technology, an efficient, flexible, and proven clean-coal combustion process. Its advanced systems will minimize water consumption. And it is designed to use biomass for up to 20 percent of its fuel supply.

The station will be located at a reclaimed surface coal mine site in Wise County, Va.

The project will have major economic development benefits for Southwest Virginia. This includes nearly 1,000 construction jobs, 75 permanent plant operations jobs and an annual payroll of over $4 million.

When operating, the facility will consume 2 million tons of coal annually from local mines — creating 350 mining jobs. And it will contribute about $440 million a year in local tax revenues according to a Virginia Tech economic impact study.

A new print ad from Dominion tells how the facility also will use piles of unsightly and toxic waste coal, or gob. Hundreds of these massive coal piles spoil Southwest Virginia's rolling countryside, leaching contaminants into water sources. Click on the ad for a closer look, and review additional print and radio ads.