State-of-the-Art Power Plant Coming to Loudoun

The Loudoun County Department of Economic Development announces that Panda Power Fund will build a power plant on a 101-acre parcel in Loudoun County. The plant will be located near Leesburg, Virginia in the Stonewall development. The state-of-the-art facility will create 600 construction jobs during its 30-month build-out phase; once operational, the plant will employ 30 people averaging $100,000 per-year salaries. The plant will be able to power up to 750,000 homes and generate an estimated $20 million per year in direct and indirect spending.

“This is excellent news for Loudoun,” said Chairman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Scott York. “Currently, the county imports 100 percent of our power needs from neighboring areas. The Panda Stonewall plant will reverse the flow of energy and power up to 750,000 homes in Northern Virginia with an environmentally clean power plant. This plant will also help to increase and diversify our commercial tax base.”

In addition, the facility will increase energy reliability for new and emerging businesses. “The Panda Stonewall plant will strengthen the reliability of the power supply in a region of increasing importance to the security of the nation,” said Todd W. Carter, president and senior partner of Panda Power Funds.

Economic Development’s Acting Director Buddy Rizer explained, “Seventy percent of the entire world’s Internet activity passes through Loudoun County data centers every day. With all the purchasing activity taking place online, along with the transmission of key defense and intelligence information, data centers cannot afford to have one second of energy failure, ever. The Panda Stonewall plant will help ensure energy reliability in Loudoun County.”

Panda Stonewall will also be one of the cleanest and most efficient power plants in the U.S. To cool the plant, it will use reclaimed waste water that would have otherwise been diverted into the Potomac River. In addition, the facility will be built along existing transmission lines, eliminating the need for power lines to import power from outside the county.

Bechtel Development and Green Energy Partners/Stonewall will partner with Panda Power Funds on this project. The plant is expected to be completed in 2017.