Hope for FutureGen and Clean Coal
A good summary article on what is happening to the coal and green industry in US, courtsey of Technology Review.
Plans to build a power plant featuring integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology and carbon capture and storage (CCS) hit a wall in January 2008 when the Bush administration withdrew support, citing cost overruns. Those concerns have since been exposed as an artifact of specious financial accounting that overestimated the cost of the plant by $500 million.
Those involved say that FutureGen may now be far more politically palatable and expedient. With five years of development already completed, they say that FutureGen is positioned to quickly advance two of the Obama administration’s top goals: economic stimulus and reduction of carbon emissions. “You have a project here that is shovel ready, and with the advancement of technology and importance of CCS, it’s very worthy of a large government infusion,” says Nick Akins, executive vice president for generation at utility giant American Electric Power (AEP), a member of the FutureGen Alliance.
FutureGen remains attractive because IGCC plants that capture and sequester CO2 are expected to offer one of the cheapest ways to achieve carbon-neutral power generation by 2020. Generating a megawatt-hour of power with CCS-equipped IGCC would cost $99 to $119 in 2020, according to European Commission cost estimates released this winter. That beats their estimates for the price of power from conventional coal plants with CCS, natural-gas generators with added CCS, and solar thermal power. (The cost of generating power from offshore wind farms was harder to predict, with estimates ranging from $86 to $152 per megawatt-hour.)
