LORDSTOWN — Clean Energy Future, the Massachusetts-based developer of Trumbull Energy Center — a project that’s been in development since 2015 — closed financing on the $1.2 billion natural gas-fired plant.

The milestone means initial construction on the plant, which will be the second of its kind in Lordstown, should begin in four to six weeks, Clean Energy Future President Bill Siderewicz told this newspaper Thursday.

“It really is going to be such a favorable input to the (Mahoning) Valley on so many levels,” Siderewicz said. “To me personally, it is so rewarding to see it happen in an area with the best people I have met in my life, the people who live in the Valley and work in the Valley.”

Construction is expected to take about three years. The project will create about 1,000 construction jobs and will require about 2 million man hours to “make it a functioning facility,” Siderewicz said.

The Ohio Power Siting Board already has approved the site plan, and in August it granted a one-year time extension to start construction after the company in March asked for the additional time citing hardship brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project still needs to come before Lordstown’s Planning Commission for some minor approvals, including, according to Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill, property setbacks, ingress and egress for safety vehicles and parking spaces.

He expects those approvals to happen by mid-December.

Clean Energy Future-Trumbull also must hold a preconstruction conference to be “on the same page” with local officials and staff with the siting board, said Matt Schilling, spokesman for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

The company is also required to submit for review by the siting board engineering drawings for the final project design to ensure they comply with the certificate to construct, which details several conditions to build. Also, Schilling said, siting board staff regularly checks in on the project during construction.

“The power siting board does monitor construction and operations for two years after a facility goes into operation,” Schilling said.

PAYMENTS

The project received a 100 percent, 15-year tax abatement, but the company agreed to make payments in lieu of taxes to Lordstown Local School District and to the village. The district and village will also share income tax 50/50 from the power plant.

The district will receive an initial payment of $800,000 and about $1 million a year over the course of the 15 years, said Siderewicz.

Lordstown will receive about $450,000 per year over the three-year construction phase and then guaranteed payments each year over the 15-year period.

Greg Bonamase, Lordstown schools’ superintendent, said early talks on how to use the initial donation were on a boiler replacement at the elementary school and some paving work.

“These are two projects we have to started to talk about in the infancy,” he said. “We’re still trying to figure out what is the best use for this money.”

GETTING HERE

Getting to this point in the project has been a long and winding road filled with obstacles, including nearly two years of litigation involving property rights, the pandemic and bickering over whether Warren or the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District would supply water to the facility.

Siderewicz said the project also faced considerable headwinds from Washington, D.C., from inflation that caused interest rates to double to bad energy policies.

Also because the majority owners of the plant are from South Korea, the project needed approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is part of the U.S. Treasury that reviews certain transactions involving foreign investment in the U.S. to determine their effect on national security.

That approval was given in September.

“I’m exhausted and incredibly grateful to all of the people in the Valley that have helped from day one,” Siderewicz said.

The plant is planned for land on Henn Parkway near state Route 45 and adjacent to the existing Lordstown Energy Center that opened in 2018. Siderewicz was a minority investor in the first plant.

“Bill Siderewicz has proven his company is one of the best corporate citizens we have ever had in the Valley, so we are elated that Clean Energy Future is coming back,” said Guy Coviello, president / CEO of the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber. “We look forward to seeing hundreds of skilled trades personnel working on that site, and should be proud that we are obviously doing something right in the community when you consider that a company like Clean Energy Future came back. One of those reasons he came back is the quality of those skilled workers.”