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August
27, 2002
Industry Ready
to Join President's Clean Coal Initiative
Opening
Round of Clean Coal Competition Attracts
36 Proposals Worth $5 Billion
Washington, DC
- Calling it
"the most striking example yet
of industry's willingness to invest
in a new generation of clean coal
technologies," Secretary of Energy
Spencer Abraham today announced that
the Department of Energy has received
36 proposals for projects valued at
more than $5 billion in the first
round of President Bush's Clean Coal
Power Initiative.
"We
are especially pleased that these
projects propose a variety of advanced
technologies that can help meet the
President's Clear Skies and Global
Climate Change objectives," Abraham
said. "The proposals tell us
that the private sector has a wealth
of 21st century ideas to meet the
President's energy and environmental
goals."
The proposals are
the first in response to President
Bush's pledge to invest $2 billion
in federal funding over the next 10
years to advance technologies that
can help meet the nation's growing
demand for electricity while simultaneously
protecting the environment.
Coal currently supplies
more than half the nation's electricity
and is one of the nation's most abundant
and affordable energy resources. Yet,
coal plants face new environmental
challenges.
Earlier this year
President Bush proposed the most aggressive
effort the United States has undertaken
to reduce pollution from power plants.
His Clear Skies Initiative sets a
goal of cutting sulfur, nitrogen,
and mercury emissions by 70 percent.
At the same time, the President outlined
a new approach for reducing greenhouse
gases. Included in his Climate Change
Initiative is the development of new
technologies that can lower the amount
of carbon gases released into the
atmosphere.
The President's Clean
Coal Power Initiative will provide
federal funding to companies to develop
and test advanced technologies that
can accomplish these and other environmental
goals. To begin the program, the Energy
Department offered approximately $330
million in matching funds. Private
sector proposers must agree to fund
at least half the cost of any project
selected.
The department will
announce its first selections in January.
Additional rounds of competition will
be open to clean coal technology developers
over the duration of the President's
program.
In all, the proposals
request more than $1 billion in federal
cost-sharing for projects proposed
in 20 states.
While some projects
are relatively small in scale, others
are more complex and highly leveraged
with private financing - one proposal,
for example, envisions a $1 billion
project with slightly more than $100
million requested from the government.
Many proposers are requesting the
government's help in financing approximately
40 to 50 percent of a project's cost.
Repayment plans have
been requested from all applicants.
Repayment received by the department
will help underwrite the government's
future clean coal research.
The Energy Department
conducted a major clean coal technology
demonstration effort in the 1980s
and early 1990s. New pollution control
and power generating technologies
from that program are now entering
the market, but the last projects
were selected nearly a decade ago.
Since then, significant technological
advancements have been made.
"Today's power
plant operators will confront a host
of environmental challenges that didn't
exist 10 years ago," said Mike
Smith, the Energy Department's Assistant
Secretary for Fossil Energy who will
oversee the new program. "Fortunately,
clean coal research has not stood
still, and now we are ready to move
a new generation of advanced processes
into first-of-a-kind testing."
Roughly half of the
new proposals are for advanced methods
for reducing sulfur, nitrogen and
mercury pollutants, either by cleaning
the exhaust gases of coal boilers
or converting the coal into a clean-burning
gas. Many gasification technologies
also have the advantage of boosting
the efficiency of power plants. More
efficient plants produce less carbon
dioxide, one of the gases that contribute
to global warming. These plants also
offer the potential to capture carbon
dioxide more easily and prevent it
from entering the atmosphere.
Other proposals include
concepts for co-producing multiple
products such as electricity and clean
liquid fuels from coal, upgrading
coal to improve its quality before
it is fed into a power plant, ways
to use coal by-products more productively,
and improved instrumentation and control
systems that can help power plants
run at peak efficiencies.
Additional information
can be obtained from the Energy Department's
National Energy Technology Laboratory's
web site at http://www.netl.doe.gov/coalpower/ccpi/.
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End of Techline -
News
Media Contact:
Drew Malcomb, DOE Office of Public
Affairs, 202/586-5806
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