Calypso Sal – the ship delivering Hickory Run parts at Port of Erie
In February 2013 MDN told you about a plan to build the Hickory Run Energy Center–a $750 million electric generating plant at a former manufacturing site in New Castle (Lawrence County), PA (see NW PA Town Approves Site for Marcellus-powered Electric Plant). Original plans called for Hickory Run to be online and operating sometime in 2016. That never happened and the project seemed to have died. But then the project got sold by LS Power, the original owner, to a subsidiary of Japan’s second largest corporation, ITOCHU Corporation. And new life was breathed into the project. The initial design called for a 900 megawatt facility, powered by Marcellus gas. More recent plans indicate the facility will be 1,000 megawatts (or 1 gigawatt), enough electricity to power 1 million homes! Ground was broken for Hickory Run last year (see Ground Broken for Lawrence County, PA NatGas-Fired Electric Plant?). Fast forward to this year. A massive load of components for the plant arrived by ship at the Port of Erie on Sunday. It is by far the largest ship to dock at the port in the last five years. Aboard the ship are more than 13 million tons of components and parts destined for the plant. Special permits and trucks will be required to get the equipment on location some 100 miles away in New Castle…
