RICHMOND - The battle lines were clearly drawn on plans to build the Dominion Virginia Power Brunswick County Power Plant. The State Corporation Commission began hearings on Dominion Virginia Power's application for the project on Wednesday, April 24 and supporters of the project and groups that oppose the project packed the courtroom. The courtroom could not accommodate the crowd so an auxiliary room was used and proceedings were transmitted via video. The SCC is not expected to make a decision on the application until the fall. Supporters of the påroject say that it will create jobs, increase the counties tax revenue, produce new economic development opportunities and provide clean reliable electricity to customers in the state. Opposition to the project centers around the process to remove the natural gas from the earth called fracking and support for more solar and wind facilities.
Earlier County Administrator Charlette Woolridge said if approved by the SCC, Dominion's proposed $1.1 billion Brunswick County Power Station would be built on a 200 acre tract off of U. S. Route 58 about seven miles east of Lawrenceville. At the peak of construction, more than 600 workers will be on site. When completed in 2016 the station would have more than 30 employees. The station would be fueled by natural gas and provide enough electricity for about 325,000 homes. Annual tax payments for the station to the county would be up to $4 million a year.
The Virginia Tourism Corporation has chosen the City of Emporia as one of 16 sites across the state to build and promote a giant LOVEwork. The LOVEwork structures are the focal point of a social media campaign to share the message that love is at the heart of every Virginia vacation. City of Emporia will join 20 other existing LOVEwork sculptures found across the state featured on www.virginia.org/LOVE as part of the Virginia is for Lovers tourism marketing campaign.
Visitors to Emporia will be encouraged to take a picture with the LOVEwork and share on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Photos taken by people from throughout the world can be seen on www.Facebook.com/VirginiaisforLovers and on Twitter by searching #LOVEVA.
"Virginia is for Lovers is about love- pure and simple, and has been for more than 40 years," said Rita McClenny, president and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corporation. "This program uses the power of social media to promote Virginia as an ideal destination for families looking to completely connect on a Virginia vacation."
Collaborative Effort Attracts Investment and Participation
Representatives of businesses, governments, agencies and local organizations from the six counties and one city of Virginia's Growth Alliance (formerly TransTech) convened to launch a comprehensive regional community development initiative.
Some members of the crowd, which totaled about 100, have been involved with aspects of the effort for more than a year. Others were in for a surprise. In its first year, the newly-formed regional economic development organization has rallied the resources and investment of nearly a dozen agencies and investors, and they have laid out a plan for a systematic economic assessment and the development of regional strategies.
Regional efforts attract coordinated agency support
Beginning in October, a broad-based group will work with economic and community development specialists in a data-rich analysis of the region's assets, industrial mix and strategic opportunities. The Stronger Economies Together (SET) process is new to Virginia, who joins 26 other states in working with select regions in the national program. The Northern Neck also was chosen in the competitive process to undertake the effort. In Virginia, SET is coordinated by USDA Rural Development, in conjunction with the Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE), Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (VDHCD), Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC), Virginia Tech Office of Economic Development, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) and the Virginia Association of Counties (VACo).
Microsoft has drawn up plans for investing $348 million in expanding its data center footprint. The investment will go into Mecklenburg County, Virginia. Some of the key aspects of this expansion will be the inclusion of all the latest innovations in green IT, expansion of its Azure cloud computing platform, using modular data center designs and better data center energy efficiency too. As far as the local economy is concerned this investment means more jobs. The data center expansion project is coming up because the company has to keep up with growing demands from its customers.
The project will also be a great showcase for the company's policy of bringing together state of the art designs as far as reducing carbon footprint is concerned with increases in server utilization and cloud computing capabilities. Using a modular principle also gives the company the advantage of lowering costs and shortening deployment times.
Microsoft is planning to invest $348m to grow its data center in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, which will see two more facilities added.
As local Indiana newspaper The Republic reports, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell said that the expansion will help create thirty new jobs in the area, with The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission putting $2m towards the project. Also, the Governor's Opportunity Fund will provide a $200,000 grant to assist the county in pushing the initiative forward.
The latest expansion adds to the $499m Microsoft already invested in the data center to build it initially back in 2010, with an additional $150m pumped in to expand the site in 2011.
Christian Belady, Microsoft Data Center Services general manager, added that the investment and expansion will increase the facility's computing capacity, software capabilities and server utilization.
Microsoft plans a big cloud data center expansion that will include the latest innovations in Green IT and keep the modular data center momentum going.
Microsoft is expanding its data center footprint in Mecklenburg County, Va., to the tune of $348 million, the software giant announced.
The investment is not only expected to bring more IT jobs to the region, it will expand the company's Azure cloud computing platform. "This expansion will allow us to meet the growing demand from consumers and businesses for our cloud services in the region in an increasingly efficient manner," Microsoft Data Center Services general manager Christian Belady said in a statement.
Microsoft, sensitive to the environmental impact of big cloud computing facilities, said that the expansion will serve as a showcase for the company's advancements in Green IT and data center energy efficiency.
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