MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Solar power plants and other renewable energy sources are real, competitive threats that neither the coal industry nor the state’s political and academic leaders should dismiss, a consultant warned Wednesday at the second West Virginia Coal Forum.
 

While the carbon in coal has many potential applications, its future as a fossil fuel to be burned for electricity is limited, said Allan Tweddle, a member of the West Virginia Public Energy Authority.
 

In a discussion focused mainly on ways to ensure that West Virginia coal remains a prominent part of the nation’s energy plan, Tweddle was a splash of cold water to the face.
Germany has abandoned the coal-to-liquid fuel technology it pioneered, he said, opting instead to focus on solar power plants. South Africa, which has had the world’s largest continuously operating coal-to-liquids plant, is now planning to shut it down.
 

Simultaneously, the worldwide solar cell industry is growing 35 percent a year, with China spending $3 billion a year, Tweddle said. And California is looking into on-demand solar plants that he said could produce electricity that is price-competitive with coal-fired power plants.
All that growth is lowering the cost of silicone, a key ingredient that had made solar power more expensive, Tweddle said.
 

“The state has got to pay attention to these serious trends,” he warned. “I hear too much dismissal of these technologies.”
 

While he supports a strong coal industry, Tweddle said, “I want to be on those trains, too.”
Imagine West Virginia, a nonpartisan policy group formed in 2006, held the forum for about 50 researchers, lobbyists and industry representatives at West Virginia University’s National Research Center for Coal and Energy.
 

The group issued 10 recommendations earlier this year, urging the state’s universities to be more aggressive about coal-related research and calling for those efforts to include mine safety and environmental issues.
 

It also said universities should develop a new graduate degree or mid-career executive program to help produce the next generation of industry leaders, and that community and technical colleges should develop work force training programs.
 

The recommendations are built on the premise that while clean, renewable energy may be coming, it’s not here yet and coal must continue to fill the gap.
 

Even if Germany, for example, does manage to produce 30 percent of its power from solar sources by 2030, “we want to supply the other 70 percent,” said William P. “Pat” Getty, a member of Imagine West Virginia’s board of directors.
 

His group says the state should also: host at least one large-scale, carbon-capture project in which greenhouse gases are stored underground; create a team of business and higher education leaders to build ties with China, Russia, Australia and other global coal producers; and work with federal agencies to help advance and commercialize new technologies.
 

“If coal is to realize its true potential we’ve just got to think differently about it,” said Rick Remish, executive director of Imagine West Virginia.
 

In a videotaped address, Sen. Jay Rockefeller said he’s working on legislation to create the Future Fuels Act, a public-private venture to focus on large-scale capture and sequestration of greenhouse gases.
 

Permanently injecting carbon dioxide into rock or underground formations could help make the production and use of coal a less-polluting prospect. But Tweddle warned that carbon sequestration could be many years from commercial viability because of “huge and unresolved” legal issues over the land involved in such projects.
 

Randy Huffman, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said Gov. Joe Manchin envisions West Virginia finding a larger role as an energy state in which coal remains a key — but not the only — resource.
 

That’s why the DEP is interested in exploring former mine sites for new uses like solar, wind or even fuel-producing grass farms.
 

“If you’re selling a product and that product becomes obsolete, then you’re out of business,” he said. “Energy will not be obsolete. Coal may become obsolete, but energy won’t.”

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