GOOD SPRING - A Canadian power developer plans to break ground on its first $400 million power plant in Porter Township this spring.
EmberClear Corp., a publicly traded company and energy developer specializing in low-emission, commercial-scale projects worldwide, focuses on natural gas in the United States to create electricity, industrial chemicals and transportation fuels.
The company owns about 560 acres in the village of Good Spring where it plans to build two natural gas combined-cycle electricity plants, dubbed the Good Spring NGCC 1 and Good Spring NGCC 2.
"We would like to break ground in May or June," James Palumbo, president of Future Power Pennsylvania Inc., an EmberClear subsidiary, said Monday.
The 330-megawatt electrical plant will supply enough electricity for about 300,000 households. It will employ about 500 construction workers, then about 100 full-time positions for plant operations and is expected to put more than $1 billion into the local economy over the first 15 years, according to EmberClear.
The second plant has the same estimates, but construction will not start until Good Spring NGCC 1 is completed, Palumbo said.
The project has been developed by EmberClear with the hope that a utility company will eventually own and operate it. EmberClear has yet to identify possible utility companies.
Construction will last at least 18 months to two years, Palumbo said.
"We are moving forward," Palumbo said. "We are in the process of finalizing permits and getting contractors."
In September 2012, the company announced SK E&C USA will handle engineering, procurement and construction of the power plant in Good Spring. The company will use subcontractors and has been working with unions throughout the planning, Palumbo said.
Originally, EmberClear planned to use an integrated gasification combined-cycle power plant that turns coal into synthetic gas, or syngas, but later announced it will be taking advantage of Marcellus Shale development and decade-low natural gas prices with a NGCC plant. The company still retains its patent rights for an IGCC if economic conditions change.
A combined-cycle plant generates electric power thorough an assembly of heat engines working together from the same source, converting it into mechanical energy that drives electrical generators.
For more information on EmberClear or the Good Spring power plants, visit www.emberclear.com.