WISE — Former Virginia governor and current U.S. Sen. Mark Warner didn’t know what to expect from an alternative energy roundtable meeting at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, but his staff told him at least 40 people better show up at the Friday evening affair to make the stopover during an already packed agenda worthwhile.

What awaited Warner was a mind-boggling array of alternative energy initiatives being pursued in Southwest Virginia assisted by the Wise County-based Appalachia America Energy Research Center and the Southwest Virginia Clean Energy Research Center in Abingdon.

The icing atop that technology-laden cake was about 60 people jammed into a conference room in the UVa-Wise Slemp Student Center to get a gander at the goings-on, too.

Evatran LLC co-founder and CEO Tom Hough gave a rundown of his company’s pursuit of technology to recharge electric vehicles without plugging into the grid, called “proximity charging.” Robert Loftur-Thun described Wise Solar Development LLC’s pursuit of developing and installing utility scale solar farms in the coalfields. Randy Taylor, co-founder and president of Hydro-Coal, described development of affordable gasifiers to gasify coal, adding “some people are surprised to hear that clean coal technology is a reality today.”

Roy Wright, a co-founder of 25 Metals LLC, described his company’s pursuit of producing lucrative rare earth metals from coal fly ash. And Dr. Kent S. Knaebel, president of Absorption Research Inc., told of his company’s confidence of producing methane from the region’s four landfills equivalent to 2.5 million gallons of gasoline over the course of a year.

Warner, who said he came to listen and learn, was not only impressed but confessed a lot of the technical discussion was beyond his ability to fathom. He did fully understand what the potential holds for the region, however.

“I can’t tell you how fascinating this is,” he said of a meeting his “sometimes difficult” staff was wary of committing him to attending. “These are some pretty wild ideas, (and a challenge is) to marry these ideas with capital.”

Warner said coal will remain a vital part of the nation’s energy resource mix, particularly if the country is to wean itself from foreign oil sooner rather than later.

“Our energy mix must be all the above and no losers and winners,” he said.

The nation has the intellectual capital to “think through some of these technologies” and mostly needs the moxie to get going and lead the way to energy solutions. Coal is part of that solution, he said.

Dominion’s new 585 megawatt power plant being built in St. Paul is a “remarkable” facility, Warner said. Nuclear, wind, solar and biofuels must be a part of a complete energy self-sufficient nation, he said.

“We need no ‘religious debate’ about climate change,” Warner said. Rather, the true debate should revolve around economic development with a vibrant energy sector leading the way to a robust national economy. China took the lead in solar energy about a decade ago, he said, and that’s because this nation let it happen.

“Coal used to be the feedstock that drove our economy in the 20th century. Wouldn’t it be great if energy technology will be the feedstock that drives the 21st century?” he asked.

“We’re still going to need coal. We need to think of ways we can mine it appropriately (and) use it appropriately. ... But I was not aware of the potential of this (alternative energy initiative) starting for this region.”