For over 25 years, NETL has been co-funding major demonstrations of clean coal technologies to hasten their adoption into the commercial marketplace. The federal government's financial support is needed to help reduce the risks inherent in these first-of-a-kind projects.

Through the year 2030, electricity consumption in the United States is expected to grow by about 1 percent per year. The ability of coal-fired generation to help meet this demand could be limited by concerns over greenhouse gas emissions. While the major demonstrations performed to date have made significant contributions related to environmental performance and efficiency, the greatest challenges may lie ahead from restrictions on CO₂ emissions. To address these concerns, NETL's most recent efforts focus on carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

In the near-term, coal will continue to provide most of our nation's baseload generation capacity. If NETL's CCS-related technology demonstrations prove to be as successful as previous endeavors, economical solutions to the control of carbon emissions will be found, and our nation will continue to benefit from coal's competitive stature and the security of its domestic availability.

Since 1985, we have shared in the funding of commercial-scale demonstration projects under four distinct programs:

	Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (ICCS): Area 1 ICCS demonstration's objective is to expedite and carry out large-scale CO2 storage systems testing in a range of geologic formations, including the expansion of CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) to new settings, while providing information on the cost and feasibility of deployment of carbon storage technologies.
	Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) CCPI began in 2002 to address an array of domestic and global energy issues through a series of demonstrations that are ongoing.
	Power Plant Improvement Initiative (PPII) PPII demonstrations specifically address electric power reliability concerns for new and existing power plants.
	Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program (CCTDP) CCTDP produced 33 completed projects in four focus areas: environmental control devices, advanced power generation, fuel processing, and industrial applications.

Highlights of Major Demonstrations Click image above to view.