posted on Monday, February 27, 2006 10:35 AM by Gunnar Birgisson

Alliance Starts Site Selection for Zero-Emissions Coal Plant

The coal and electric utility industries in the FutureGen Alliance have started selecting a site for the state-of-the-art FutureGen project, a coal-fired, zero-emissions power plant the Alliance will build in cooperation with the U.S. Government.  If successful, the project may devise ways of harnessing abundant U.S. and world coal reserves without exacerbating the world’s increasingly worrisome dynamic of greenhouse gas emissions overheating the global climate.  

Members of the Alliance include two large U.S. utilities, American Electric Power and Southern Company, as well as BHP Billiton, the China Huaneng Group, CONSOL Energy Inc., Foundation Coal, Kennecott Energy, and Peabody Energy.  They will pay a portion of the plant's costs, while the U.S. government, acting through the DOE, will fund the balance.  The Alliance has announced it will issue a request for proposals in March 2006 for selection of the site for the project.  A draft RFP is already available.  Candidate sites will be evaluated based on technical, environmental, regulatory and financial criteria.  In addition to possessing the usual attributes that are keys to successful power plant siting, such as the availability of water, transmission, and fuel delivery, potential sites must be in an area where the geology is amenable to sequestration of carbon dioxide for permanent storage.  The Alliance expects to select a site by late 2007.  With lengthy periods expected for permitting and construction, the plant is unlikely to be operational before 2012. 

The DOE will serve as lead agency in preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS), pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), to determine which of the candidate sites are acceptable from an environmental impact perspective.  Comments related to the NEPA process are due to DOE by March 20, 2006.