
How much does Dominion Energy’s 1,100 MW Great Lakes Energy Scenarios cost?
- October 26, 2021
The $8-billion energy project that Dominion Energy has proposed to build near Chicago’s Lake Michigan is costing nearly $3.5 billion.
That’s up about 15% from Dominion’s original estimate in July of 2017, and it’s a bigger jump than Dominion’s previous energy projections.
Dominion has been working on the Great Lakes project for several years and recently submitted a new energy plan, which shows the project’s estimated costs rise by more than 50%.
Dominion estimates that building the project will cost $3,826 per megawatt-hour, which would be more than $100,000 per megapower hour for a typical coal-fired power plant.
Dominion also expects to build at least 50 MW of new solar power capacity in the Great Lake area, and expects the project to generate more than 5 GW of energy by 2030.
Dominion says the project has been “a top priority for the company for over 20 years.”
The company is also building a massive natural gas project in Illinois that will generate more energy than all of its coal-burning power plants combined.
“We are investing billions of dollars in energy to help our customers and our communities,” Dominion CEO Tim Phillips said at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in July.
“Our commitment is not only to the Great Basin and Midwest, but to the world.
Our vision for the world is a cleaner, more resilient world, one where we all have the opportunity to flourish and flourish.”
Dominion Energy plans to begin construction in 2020 and expects to complete it by 2030, the company said in a statement.
The company said it has invested more than 9 billion dollars in the project, and the Great Gas-to-Coal Energy Project is the largest and most ambitious coal-fueled project in the world, according to Dominion’s statement.
A company spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Dominion’s energy projects have been in the news lately.
In June, the utility announced that it would buy two companies that had filed for bankruptcy protection: Westinghouse Electric and Powercast Energy.
The utilities said the companies would have to shut down if they did not repay the debts.
And in August, the government of the United Kingdom ordered Dominion to pay a $8.9 billion penalty for failing to disclose a $3 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit over a 2009 nuclear plant accident.
Dominion did not comment on the new lawsuits or the utility-backed bankruptcy.
In the first half of this year, Dominion Energy received $5.2 billion in fines and penalties from the U.S. and Canadian governments, according the company.
Dominion Energy was awarded $4.6 billion by the U