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Oil & Gas Industry Information
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Energy Corner by Ed Mowrer Belmont College
South Field Energy LLC recently announced plans to build a $1.1 billion natural gas-fired electric generating plant in Columbiana County, north of Steubenville. The plant will generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity, enough power to serve 1 million homes. For comparison, the recently shut down Kammer Plant near Moundsville generated 640 megawatts of power or about half of what this new plant will. The project will create 550 construction jobs over three years and 25 full-time employees in engineering, technical, operations, management and administrative positions. This is the sixth new natural gas-fired electric generating power plant that has been announced for construction in Ohio, which collectively total $4.86 billion in investment and 5,338 megawatts of generation capacity. Other plants are under construction in Carrollton, Lordstown, Middleton, Oregon, and Wilkesville, Ohio.
Shell terminates Artic exploration following a disappointing result with their Burger well in the Chukchi Sea. This decision could mark the end of Artic O&G exploration for some time. Shell had invested $7 billion in the Artic project. Saudi Arabia has withdrawn tens of billions of dollars from global asset managers in recent months in an effort to cut its massive deficit caused by falling oil prices. Moves like these show the importance of our local domestic supply of O&G and how it is affecting the world economy.
Twelve new Utica well permits have been secured in Belmont County since September 1st, bringing the total wells permitted to 256. Over 105 wells are producing in our county. A total of 2,026 Utica wells have been permitted in Ohio, with 1,606 of those drilled. Belmont, Harrison, and Monroe counties continue to be a hotbed of Oil and Gas activity in Ohio, with more permits than the rest of the state combined.
Belmont College offers a two year degree in Power Plant Technology. Students gain knowledge in electrical theory, electrical machinery and controls, power plant operation and instrumentation. This program prepares graduates to perform basic operating functions required in electric utility power plants. Please contact Belmont College at 740-699-3860 for more information.
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Energy Corner by Ed Mowrer Belmont College
The US solar market is growing. Last year 4,751 Mega Watts of solar photo-voltaic (PV) electric generation was installed in the US. This is a 41% increase over 2012 and nearly fifteen times the amount installed in 2008. The installed cost of solar PV fell by 15% last year. At the end of 2013 there were more than 44,000 operating solar electric systems in the US. Three of them are in Belmont County. Forty-four percent of the systems installed last year were installed in the last quarter of the year. Solar PV accounted for 29% of all of the new electricity generation capacity in 2013, up from 10% in 2012. This made solar the second-largest source of new electricity generation behind natural gas. Growing faster than solar and gas generation is increases in building efficiency. Last year $43.9 billion was spent on increased building efficiency, compared to $31.3 billion on all new sources of electricity generation.
Google is aspiring to fuel all of their operation with renewable energy. They presently fuel 34% of their operations with renewables. The web search engine company recently spent $1 billion aimed at funding 15 wind and solar projects in a way of promoting clean energy.
A recent poll by Clean Edge, Inc. and SolarCity shows that 88 percent of American homeowner support renewable energy and 62 percent indicated that they would be interested in solar energy for their home. According to the same poll, the most planned “clean-energy” purchases in the next year are LED light bulbs followed by smart thermostats, new windows, hybrid cars, and Energy-star rated hot water heaters.