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The US Department of Energy pledged $1 billion in August 2010 for FutureGen 2.0, the government’s flagship demonstration coal-fired power plant designed to capture CO2 emissions and store them underground. The project’s predecessor was cancelled in 2008 due to the soaring $1.8 billion price tag. Last year, DOE said it would restart the project, with stimulus funding behind the effort. The old FutureGen would have been a totally new power plant in Mattoon, Illinois, using an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology. The new FutureGen involves an oxyfuel retrofit of a 200 MW unit at an idle coal-fired power plant owned by Ameren in Meredosia, Illinois. Captured CO2 would be piped 150 miles to the Mattoon site for storage. However, on Wednesday, Mattoon representatives sent a letter to Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) indicating it would not provide the land for storage if the power plant was built elsewhere. |
