Business leaders: West Virginia’s energy future faces challenges
August 30, 2024
With the demand for all forms of energy expected to increase, West Virginia’s energy future faces challenges.
The state’s energy future was discussed during Thursday morning’s West Virginia Chamber of Commerce business summit at The Greenbrier resort, in White Sulphur Springs. It was moderated by Jason Grumet, CEO of American Clean Power Association.
“Demand for electric power is soaring, and the way that we have not anticipated, new technologies are helping to meet that moment,” he said. “Last year, 78% of all of the new electricity data to our national grid came from clean technologies. So we see ourselves as part of this growing solution.”
Grumet said he believes the energy industry will need to hire 500,000 people in the next decade to provide the manufacturing, as well as the construction and the operation, of existing and new energy facilities.
“This offers huge opportunities based on the talented workforce here in West Virginia,” he said.
Grumet said the association represents all of the different wind and solar and storage technologies and transmission.
“Over two-thirds of all of the renewable power deployed last year was built by companies that also had fossil fuel power,” he said. “So there’s been this idea that there were two sides in the energy bank fighting with each other. It’s just not the reality in the real world.”
Nation, state facing grid challenges
“We are going to solve the grid challenge,” said Mateo Jaramillo, co-founder and CEO of Form Energy.
Jaramillo said Form Energy is doing its part by commercializing a new type of battery called
an iron air battery.
“So we are reversibly rusting iron as the electrochemical reaction. Of course, West Virginia knows a lot about iron, so there’s a lot of reasons why we’re here. And we are doing it on the site of the old Weirton steel mill in Weirton, West Virginia.”
The company’s been around for about seven and a half years, Jaramillo said.
“It’s the perfect representation for why we came to West Virginia in the first place, which was to go quickly and to be able to scale, and to do it in a way that really provided us with a launchpad to be able to get into the market,” he explained. “That’s about 500,000 square feet there. We’re making those batteries, which will then go out to different states around the
country. And all of those batteries will say — of course — made in West Virginia.”
BHE Renewables revitalizes Jackson site
Alicia Knapp, president and CEO with BHE Renewables, said the former home of Kaiser Aluminum in Ravenswood is now the site of Constellium Rolled Products and Precision Castparts.
“When that plant closed, it … had more than 1,000 people working there in Jackson County. And when it closed it … had a huge impact on that community and had sat closed for a long time,” she said.
She said revitalizing the site created a new energy opportunity for the state.
“They are building a factory to create titanium parts for the aerospace industry,” she said. “They make titanium parts for airplanes. We are bringing a solar and battery-powered micro
grid to Jackson County to power that facility.”
She said clean energy is the catalyst that’s bringing 200 jobs to the community. “We have the opportunity then to build out the rest of that manufacturing site with additional companies that we’re continuing to work with,” she said. “We will continue to bring new energy into the energy community.”
Manchin touts ARCH2
Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., touted the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2).
“When you think about the ARCH2 hydrogen hub, we worked on that through the bipartisan infrastructure bill, we were able to basically show that we need something that has horsepower to run the country, and we can do it cleaner than ever before,” Manchin said.
“We’re just trying to make sure that we can bring into the marketplace as quickly as possible.”
He said ARCH2 would mean West Virginia and the Appalachian region will be the new epicenter of hydrogen energy production in the United States.
“As Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, I wrote and fought for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to include $8 billion to establish hydrogen hubs to demonstrate the production and use of clean hydrogen,” he said. “Now, our region will be on the leading edge of building out the new hydrogen market while bringing good-paying jobs and new economic opportunity in West Virginia and the Appalachian region.
Story by Fred Pace, HD Media