Competitive Power Ventures confirms CCS power project location

Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) confirmed December 12 it had chosen West Virginia’s Doddridge County as the location for its CPV Shay Energy Center, a 1,800 MW combined-cycle natural gas power plant incorporating carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology.

CPV announced the $3bn project in September, when it said the investment would serve as the cornerstone of a decarbonisation platform that builds on two decades of developing highly efficient and low emitting gas-fired power plants. Media reports at the time were already speculating about Doddridge County as the likely location for the project.

Both the Doddridge County Commission and the Doddridge County Board of Education unanimously approved a critical payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement that will enable the project to move forward with permitting and the required regulatory approval processes.

Following permitting and construction, which will include up to 2,000 skilled jobs at peak, the project will go into operation later this decade and power nearly 2mn homes and businesses in West Virginia while capturing the vast majority of carbon emissions from the facility.

The project benefits from expanded 45Q federal tax credits for CCUS under the US Inflation Reduction Act and from key West Virginia state legislation passed earlier this year that codifies how CCUS would work in the state.