As 2023 draws to a close, the West Virginia High Technology Foundation has a number of projects in the works, many of which involve the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
West Virginia High Tech Foundation President and CEO Jim Estep said that NOAA’s “significant expansion” is one of the primary focuses of the foundation right now, with the federal agency looking to invest between $200 million and $300 million in infrastructure at the I-79 Technology Park over the next several years.
“A big (infrastructure project) that’s already begun is the expansion of the supercomputing center, which is called the NOAA Environmental Security Computing Center,” Estep said. “They are investing $30 million in the center’s infrastructure, basically more than doubling its capacity for high-performance computing assets. That is going to really bump us up nationally in terms of truly being one of the most significant locations in the United States for supercomputing.”
The foundation also is finishing up construction on a new antenna system in the I-79 Park for NOAA’s space weather program, which is also in partnership with NASA. An additional new antenna system is also under construction, this one for NOAA’s Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System.
The foundation is also working with NOAA in the development of an “entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem” for the commercial climate and weather sector, a sector that Estep has been wanting to court to the area for the last few years.
