Swiss company Advanced Power AG announced Tuesday that it has arranged financing for an $899 million power plant near Carrollton.
The 700-megawatt plant, Carroll County Energy, will be powered by natural gas from eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale. It could produce enough electricity to power 750,000 homes; Carroll County is home to about 29,000 residents.
Partners TIAA-CREF, Chubu Electric Power Co., Ullico and Prudential Capital Group are providing $411 million in equity commitments. BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and eight other commercial banks are providing $488 million in senior secured credit.
The plant is scheduled to begin operations in late 2017, said Advanced Power, a privately held company. An estimated 700 construction jobs and 20 to 30 permanent jobs would be created.
Bechtel is building the plant, EthosEnergy will operate the facility and Advance Power, which has offices in London and Boston, will remain as the construction and asset manager.
The plant will be built on a 77-acre site a half-mile east of state Route 9 and about 2.5 miles north of Carrollton. The plant’s footprint is 17 acres.
Plans for the project first were announced in July 2013.
Tuesday’s “financial closing is a major milestone for Carroll County Energy,” project manager Jonathan Winslow said. “We are pleased for the Carroll County community at large and Carrollton schools as we move forward with this project and begin to contribute to the local economy, employment and energy picture.”
He said site work already has begun.
The new plant will be close to Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline plus American Electric Power transmission lines, officials said.
Organizers said the plant will generate electricity in a region where numerous polluting, coal-fired power plants are being retired amid tightening federal clean-air rules.
The plant will capture waste heat to generate additional electricity. It will produce 50 percent of the carbon dioxide and less than 10 percent of the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that would have been produced by a coal-fired plant, the company said.
From Bloomberg Business (originally from Akron Beacon Journal) | April 7, 2015
