Southwest Va. Big Deal: Land ho!

The largest business deal announced during the past year in Southwest Virginia is an agreement between Dallas-based Fortune 100 natural gas and propane pipeline transport company Energy Transfer, Virginia’s nonprofit Energy DELTA Lab and Wise County to develop energy infrastructure in the region.

Under the agreement, the partners will work with energy companies and electric utilities to promote development of 65,000 acres of reclaimed coal mining lands as part of a public-private regional economic development campaign.

The partnership will pursue development using an “all-of-the-above” energy technology strategy. This aligns with Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 2022 Virginia Energy Plan, which aims to fulfill the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act’s 2050 mandate for generating electricity statewide from renewable, carbon-free energy sources by harnessing a mix of energy sources such as nuclear, hydrogen and natural gas in addition to wind, solar and battery storage supported by Virginia Democrats.

It’s hoped that the deal could attract up to $8.25 billion in private capital investment and generate more than 1,650 jobs, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

“It’s safe to assume that energy jobs on average are going to exceed the median household income for Wise County of approximately $47,000 and per capita income below $24,000,” says Will Clear, managing partner of Bristol, Virginia-based consultancy Virginia Energy Strategies and an adviser to DELTA Lab.

The Energy DELTA Lab will be the primary developer of the project, and more than a dozen projects that could generate nearly 1 gigawatt of power were under consideration as of November 2023.

Energy Transfer’s vast land holding, which is managed by Penn Virginia Operating Co. (PVOC), is primarily located in Wise County and includes ownership of surface and subsurface rights.

“The important thing about the agreement is that there is now something in writing with PVOC, so we can go to investors, developers or grant providers and show them that the landowners are onboard with leveraging the land for potential energy-related projects,” Clear says. “I expect 2024 to be a year when land-lease deals will get done, the first of which would be around midyear. There are regulatory steps that first must be taken.”

Clear declined to name the companies eyeing the land for development but added, “I can say they have done transmission studies and have spent hundreds of hours evaluating this land.”

U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-9th District, who represents much of Southwest Virginia, Martinsville and parts of the New River Valley, says energy has been the foundation of the area’s economy for more than 100 years.

“This deal will bring hundreds of jobs related to so many energy sources such as nuclear, wind, solar and hydro,” Griffith says. “This is a huge parcel of land. … It has the potential to have a positive and dramatic effect on our area. We are striving to bring cutting- edge technology to old energy sources.”

Much of the surface of this land hasn’t really been utilized, Clear says: “It’s been mined — and so, it’s been disturbed — but it’s in a great position to deploy alternative energy assets such as solar and perhaps wind power.

“Because of the land disturbances that have been made, the rock is easy to move around,” Clear explains. “The land is essentially flat. Very little additional excavation is necessary.”

Wise County Administrator Mike Hatfield said in a statement, “Large portions of Wise County have often been difficult to develop, given limited access due to private and federal ownership. This agreement will create game-changing opportunities that simply did not exist before.”

One of three industrial sites that the Energy DELTA Lab is developing in Wise County, including on land owned by Energy Transfer, is the 4,000-acre Bullitt site on the border of Lee County. The site could hold multiple industrial projects with adjacent energy sites to power on-site demand, and the complex is situated over abandoned mines that contain nearly 10 billion gallons of water.

The team also plans to develop the Data Center Ridge campus on the Bullitt site, converting a 400-acre previously mined property to a 1-gigawatt, multi-tenant data center campus that would be powered by the planned adjacent energy projects.

Associate Editor Katherine Schulte contributed to this story.