RICHMOND — Liberty University is thinking about building its own electricity-generating plant after its utility bill went up 40 percent last fall, Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said Monday.
The university hired Richmond lobbyist Ralph L. “Bill” Axselle Jr. to represent its interests in several electricity-related bills now making their way through the General Assembly, Falwell said.
“We use so much electricity that we would be remiss not to look at some options for generating some of our own,” Falwell said.
Possible generating methods the university has considered include a biomass plant that could burn wood chips, a hydroelectric plant at a dam on the James River, solar panels on the school’s rooftops, “and even some wind options,” Falwell said.
Candlers Mountain was considered and rejected as a possible site for wind turbines, Falwell said. “I don’t think we’re in the right part of the country for those to work,” he said.
Solar energy and biomass plants are better possibilities, Falwell said.
“We have 30 to 40 acres of rooftops on campus, so we’re looking seriously” at solar factors, he said.
“It’s all on the drawing board, all just for the future,” Falwell said. “There are lots of feasibility studies and engineering studies. Nothing is in concrete yet.”
Axselle is following bills in the General Assembly that would require utility companies, municipalities and the Virginia Department of Transportation to share their rights of way for power lines, Falwell said.
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