St Croix Alumina power station
St Croix Alumina power station is a retired 35-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station in the state of Virgin Islands, United States.[1]
Location
The map below shows the location of the power station in the state of Virgin Islands, United States.
Background
The St. Croix alumina refinery was bought in 1995 by Alcoa Alumina and Chemicals Inc from the Glencore International group for about $100 million. The refinery had a production capacity of 600,000 tons of alumina per year; it obtained its supplies (notably bauxite) from Alcoa's existing mines in Jamaica, Surinam or Guinea. The Aluminium Company of America owns 60% of Alcoa Alumina and Chemicals, while Western Mining owns 40%.[2] The smelter in the plant went idle in 1999, followed by the end of operations at the refinery in January 2001, which terminated the jobs of 350 employees working ath te plant. In July 2001, Alcoa announced that it would permanently close the St. Croix Alumina plant.[1]
Cleaning Up the Refinery
Between 1978 and 1991, a large amount of petroleum was released from storage tanks and underground pipes at the St. Croix Alumina facility and another petroleum refinery nearby. In 2002, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a clean-up of the underground oil — estimated to be around 900,000 to over 2 million gallons — located at the St. Croix Alumina facility. All entities that owned or operated the plant took part in the clean up, which was estimated to take around five years.[3]
In 2016, approximately 40% of the estimated oil had been extracted from groundwater. As part of the remediation plan, onsite renewable energy systems used to power extraction equipment used for extraction were installed. From 2002 to 2011, the remediation installed four wind turbines and four photovoltaic arrays.[4]
Project Details
- Sponsor: Alcoa Inc
- Parent company: Alcoa
- Location: the state of Virgin Islands, United States
- Coordinates: 17.7213, -64.7275 (exact)
- Coal type: Unknown
- Coal source: Unknown
- Gross generating capacity (retired): 35 MW
- Unit 1: Coal-fired subcritical, 35 MW (start-up in 1964)
Articles and Resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "St. Croix Alumina to Close Permanently". St. Croix Source. 2001-07-07. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
- ↑ Howarth, Ian (1995-07-27). "Alcoa buys Virgin Islands refinery". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
- ↑ "Innovative Cleanup of St. Croix Alumina Contamination Begin". EPA Archive. February 21, 2002. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Former St. Croix Alumina Plant". EPA Contaminated Site Clean-Up Information. September, 2016. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
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