By: Lydia Crawley The Parsons Advocate
Representatives for Clearway sat down with the Parsons Advocate at their site in Black Rock to discuss the Catamount Energy Project that will see the placement of wind turbines in Tucker County. Manager, Community Affairs Callie Dayton, Plant Manager, Black Rock Doug Vance and Lead Tech, Black Rock Sam Vosloh discussed the project in length.
The Catamount Project is located primarily in Grant County with some turbines will be located in Tucker County. The West Virginia Public Service Commission has permitted the project twice previously, but with each permitting process, the number of turbines has decreased, according to Dayton. This is the third round of permitting for the project.
“Each time the number of turbines has dropped significantly,” Dayton said. “It started out at over a hundred and then went down to seventy some and now we are down to 36.”
According to Dayton, the reason for the decrease in turbine numbers has been attributed to new technological advances.
“We are able to reduce that footprint size and we’re staying within the same project boundaries as what previously had been permitted under different developers,” Dayton said.
Dayton said that Clearway has not been the Developer for the project throughout its entirety. Windfarm development is a long process involving extensive studies and permitting processes that takes years to complete, sometimes over a decade.
Vance said that extensive wind studies need to be completed on a site, as well. According to Vance, the elevation of the area is one of the key factors in the choice of the site. The elevation helps to create flow between warm and cool air that creates wind. According to Vance, it has to do with mountain topography.
“If you go to the Geological Survey of the area, you can drill down into specific locations and you can find the suitable wind locations,” Vance said. “They usually rate them from a 1 to a 7 and so I think Black Rock is in an area of 5 out of 7. Pinnacle is the same way, but that’s being up on this ridge.”
Vance explained the turbines as a generator, a gearbox and the blades. According to Vance, the largest difference between wind turbine energy generation and conventional power plants is that the turbines aren’t powered by steam.
“The important part of this is the generator and the gearbox are in every power plant, everywhere,” Vance said. “The only difference is this one is sitting 250, 300 feet in the air. They got the same generators and the same gearboxes as a power plant, but they’re just driven by steam, instead of driven by air. That’s the only difference.”
Vance said that West Virginia has a view of diversifying energy. Where in the past, the state had solely relied on coal for its energy production, it has switched its view to an official policy to include renewable energies in their energy production. The government’s official policy, according to Vance, is 80% coal and 20% renewable energy such as wind, solar, gas or hydroelectric. The change, according to Vance, has come from environmental and governmental pressures over the years that have reduced the coal industry.
“Wind became a good opportunity for West Virginia,” Vance said.
Vance illustrated how coal and wind would have worked together during the Blizzard of ’93. At the time, Vance said he was working in a coal fired power plant. Vance said that wind power would have assisted during the blizzard to help when production in the coal plant was reduced.
“We could not get the coal into the boilers because the coal piles froze,” Vance said. “We had too much water. If you could get something to go, once you got it into the plant, the snow and all of the water came out of it and it just wouldn’t flow and so our power plant was reduced because of all that. If you think about it, during that particular time frame, it would have been helpful to have all the wind because there was a lot of wind associated with that storm. Then there’s times when there’s no wind blowing and thank God we got a power plant.”
According to Dayton, the project is designed to be as minimally impactful on the county as possible. Dayton said the turbines will not be as visible in areas that are popular for tourism such as Blackwater Falls.
“We like Blackwater Falls and Dolly Sods and guests places,” Dayton said.
Eastern Community and Technical College has a Wind Technology Program. The head of the program at one time interned with the company, according to Dayton. The company has also hired a significant number of technicians from the program. Dayton said the company has a hire local philosophy.
“Its all local folks we’ve got on the ground working on our projects,” Dayton said.
Vosloh said that he has been in the industry for 11 years. Prior to working in the wind industry, he worked for Walmart. He said his traditional four year degree had not yielded any prospects and he was convinced to give retraining for the industry a try. He was convinced to retrain through the Eastern program by a friend at work who was in the program.
“I’ve really learned a lot. Its really expanded my horizons,” Vosloh said. “I’ve learned knowledge and skills that I did not have before and that I never would have had, had I not come here.”
Vosloh said that the wind farm changed his life. He said that the higher pay and good employment opportunity gave him a life he would not have had should he have remained in retail. He said that many of the people he works with at the wind farms are feel the same. Vosloh said he is grateful for the opportunity the wind farm has afforded him,
“Most everybody here and over there are the same way,” Vosloh said. “They were doing whatever they were doing before they came to work at the wind farm. Its changed a lot of people’s lives around here because there’s not a lot of employment potential in this area.”
Dayton said that while the wind farm may not have the largest number of jobs coming into the community, there are still jobs coming in. Dayton said that she feels that any amount of jobs are still jobs that keep locals employed locally and helps keep people in communities where they grew up.
“Twelve jobs, 20 jobs, that still matters in communities like this because that’s still 12 or 20 more people who are bettering themselves and able to stay in these communities with their families where they grew up,” Dayton says.
Of the 36 turbines that are slated for the project, only four are designated for Tucker County. The remainder are designated for Grant County.
