WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman today announced the signing of a Record of Decision that clears the path for construction of a $569-million, 285-megawatt coal-fired power plant that will be one of the cleanest, most efficient plants of its kind in the world.  The plant will be co-owned by Southern Power Company, the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC), and Kellogg, Brown and Root and will be located at OUC’s existing Stanton Energy Center near Orlando, FL.  DOE will provide 41% of the funding, or $235 million, through a cooperative agreement with Southern Power.

“The innovative technologies we are funding through the President Bush’s Clean Coal Power Initiative hold the promise of generating clean, reliable, and affordable electricity in the United States, utilizing our most abundant natural resource, coal”, Secretary Bodman said.  “Southern Company’s proven combined-cycle approach increases the amount of electricity that can be generated from a given amount of fuel and takes us to the next step in implementing this technology on a wide scale, commercial basis.”

This is one of three projects moving forward under the second round of the President’s Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI), a 10-year, $2-billion demonstration program that seeks to deliver innovative technologies to improve the environmental performance of new and existing coal-fired power plants in the United States.  The technologies developed under the CCPI program will help maintain the Nation’s abundant coal resources as a cornerstone of our future domestic energy portfolio, particularly for power generation.

The other projects are Excelsior Energy Inc. and ConocoPhillips’ 531-megawatt Mesaba Energy Project at Hoyt Lakes, MN and the Pegasus Technology Project, which combines Pegasus Technologies Inc. with NRG Energy, Inc. in a joint effort to demonstrate technology advancements supporting the President’s Clear Skies Initiative calling for dramatic reductions in power plant emissions, particularly mercury, by 2018.

The Florida plant will demonstrate an advanced power generation system that uses a form of integrated gasification-combined cycle technology and state-of-the-art emission controls.  The transport gasifier technology to be demonstrated at the plant is unique among coal gasification technologies in that it cost-effectively uses low-rank coals, as well as coals with a high moisture or high ash content.  These coals comprise half of the proven U.S. and world reserves.

Integrated gasification combined-cycle technology will be at the heart of FutureGen, a $1 billion prototype power plant that will integrate a suite of technologies to slash emissions while producing both electricity and hydrogen from coal.  Emissions from the plant will be reduced almost to zero, solid wastes will be converted to useful commercial products, and as much as 90 percent of the CO2 produced by the plant is expected to be captured initially.  The FutureGen plant will also serve as the proving ground for even more advanced technologies, including devices that may eventually capture up to 100 percent of CO2 emissions.

For more information, please visit http://www.fossil.energy.gov/.

Media contact(s):
Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940