TerraSpark Energy Campus Wins $18.5M DOE Grant for West Virginia Coal Power and Carbon Capture Project

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded TerraSpark up to $18.5 million to develop the TerraSpark Energy Campus in West Virginia. The project aims to deliver 1.6 GW of coal-fired baseload power with Mantel Capture's molten borate carbon capture system, which claims to capture up to 98% of CO2 emissions at less than half the cost per tonne of current technologies. The grant will fund front-end engineering, permitting, and early technical studies. The project brings together partners including Sargent & Lundy, Babcock & Wilcox, and Advanced Resources International. It also includes plans for a West Virginia Coal Innovation & Training Center for rare earth extraction and waste-to-value initiatives. At full buildout, the campus is expected to support nearly 500 permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs, positioning West Virginia as a hub for advanced energy and carbon management. However, the reliance on coal and the scalability of the novel carbon capture technology remain open questions.