By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has set aside community and environmental advocate opposition to approve a permit application for a biomass and carbon-capture facility in Mason County whose permittee is linked to plans for nearby data center operations.
The DEP issued an air quality permit Thursday for the facility planned by MGS CNP 1 LLC, an affiliate of Houston-based Fidelis New Energy LLC, which plans to construct a biomass-fueled boiler to provide electric power not for sale to undisclosed operations near a hydrogen production facility proposed by fellow Fidelis affiliate MGS H2 1 LLC.
The biomass-fueled facility is planned to be located off W.Va. 62 at 5801 Ohio River Road north of Point Pleasant, where MGS CNP 1 proposed the operations in its February permit application. The turn off to MGS CNP 1’s proposed biomass-fired facility would be approximately 3 miles north of Point Pleasant High School, according to a DEP engineering evaluation.
The permit request has prompted concerns over how emissions from the site will be monitored as well as MGS CNP 1’s redaction of information about its biomass operations in the application, extending a trend of the DEP approving permit applications heavily opposed in the communities for which data center-linked facilities been proposed.
Photo by Sean McCallister, Charleston Gazette-Mail