Panda Power Funds acquires majority interest in planned Loudoun power plant

Published September 24, 2013 by Robert Powell, III

Dallas-based Panda Power Funds has acquired a majority interest in a planned 750-megawatt, combined-cycle power plant in Loudoun County.

When commissioned, the natural gas-fueled “Stonewall” generating station will be able to supply the power needs of about 750,000 homes in the Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., metro area. Panda expects the facility to begin operations in spring 2017.

Panda Power Funds’ partners in the Stonewall project include Bechtel Development, a subsidiary of the Bechtel Corp., and Green Energy Partners/Stonewall, the project’s original developer.

The generating station will use reclaimed municipal waste water from the Town of Leesburg to cool the plant. Putting to use waste water that would normally be diverted to the Potomac River subsequently prevents the discharge of harmful nutrients into the environmentally sensitive Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Stonewall plant will also be a “zero-liquid-discharge” plant, returning no waste water to a treatment facility.

The plant will generate an estimated $20 million per year in direct and indirect spending.

Approximately 600 jobs will be created to construct the power plant at peak construction. During operations, the generating station will create about  30 long-term jobs with an average annual salary of more than $100,000.

The generating station will be located on a 101-acre parcel approximately four miles south/southeast of Leesburg.

Bechtel is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the Stonewall facility. Construction will take approximately 30 months.

Founded in 2010, Panda Power Funds is a private equity firm.  Panda has invested in four combined-cycle power plants totaling 3,103 megawatts — currently under construction in Temple and Sherman, Texas, and Bradford County, Pennsylvania — and a 20-megawatt solar project in operation in Pilesgrove, N.J.

Panda Power Funds also recently announced that it is developing an 859 megawatt power plant in Brandywine, Md.