COLUMBUS — American Municipal Power-Ohio has been approved for a $30 million bridge loan from the $150 million advanced energy portion of the Ohio Bipartisan Job Stimulus Plan to ultimately assist in developing the American Municipal Power-Ohio Generation Station proposed for Letart Falls.

The official announcement was made yesterday by Gov. Ted Strickland and Ohio Air Quality Development Authority Executive Director Mark Shanahan. Ohio Sen. Jimmy Stewart (R-Meigs) was first to call The Daily Sentinel about the announcement.

“The first two recipients of these funds are great examples of how investing in advanced energy technologies is stimulating Ohio’s economy,” Strickland said. “The impacts of President Obama’s recovery act and our bipartisan state stimulus package are becoming evident — we are creating the jobs of the future in Ohio today.”

The other recipient is a Perrysburg solar panel manufacturer. The funding, which will be awarded to Willard & Kelsey Solar Group LLC and AMP-Ohio, was approved by the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, the state agency responsible for administering the program’s funds.

Kent Carson, communications director for AMP-Ohio, said the loan is zero interest for five years.

“We still have our hurdles but this was certainly good news today,” Carson said of yesterday’s announcement.

Ohio Sen. Stewart said of the loan: “It’s good to see recognition at the state level of the importance of this project, not just for Meigs County but the state and surrounding region. Nothing compares to this $3.25 billion investment in Ohio, at least not right now.”

Rep. Debbie Phillips (D-Athens) said of the news: “This project is a critical part of economic development plans in Meigs County and the entire region, and the award is a smart investment in Ohio’s overall advanced energy strategy.”

AMP-Ohio President/CEO Marc Gerken also commented about yesterday’s news with: “The AMPGS project is a clean coal technology project that will be the first large-scale commercial deployment of Powerspan ECO SO2 technology. The support for this project, and its use of Powerspan technology, shows tremendous foresight and a commitment to develop technology that will responsibly use coal as an affordable and reliable fuel source. The AMPGS project will be the cleanest facility of its type in the region and one of the cleanest in the nation. The use of Powerspan not only gives us the ability to control emissions to best available control technology (BACT) standards, but will significantly reduce the amount of waste coming from the facility. AMPGS creates jobs and represents a major investment in the State of Ohio and the Meigs County area. This is a good project and we appreciate the support and acknowledgment of the state.”

Carson said though the loan will help the company “stage our financing and help pay for the cost of using Powerspan in the project” the anticipated construction scheduled has not been changed. AMP-Ohio hopes to begin construction late this year or in the first quarter of 2010. Construction is expected to last four-and-a-half years with commercial operations beginning in 2014.

The AMPGS is expected by some to pump more than $20 million annually into the area economy, provide 1,600 construction jobs and 165 permanent operating jobs. The press release from Gov. Strickland’s office states the full-time, permanent workers at AMPGS will earn an average wage of $31.25 per hour.

The Powerspan technology previously received $4.5 million in funding from the Ohio Coal Development Office, a program of OAQDA.

Ohio’s Advanced Energy Stimulus Program, includes $84 million for non-coal related technology projects and $66 million for clean coal projects. The program is part of the $1.57 billion Ohio Bipartisan Jobs Stimulus Plan signed into law by Gov. Strickland in June 2008. More than 215 applications for program funding have been received to date.