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DOE Formally Commits $1B to FutureGen 2.0; Ameren Charts Project’s Next Steps

The Energy Department on Tuesday said it had signed a final cooperative agreement with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance and Ameren Energy Resources, formally committing $1 billion in Recovery Act funding to build the revamped FutureGen project.

The so-called “FutureGen 2.0” project proposes to repower an oil-fired unit at Ameren’s Meredosia Power Plant near Jacksonville, Ill., converting it into a full-scale, oxy-combustion coal-fired plant designed for permanent carbon dioxide capture and storage.

The DOE said it would partner with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance to select an Illinois host community for the carbon storage site as well as a geologic sequestration research complex and a craft labor training center. “This site could eventually become a regional CO2 storage site in downstate Illinois,” it said.

The agreement paves the way for work at the Meredosia facility to begin, Ameren said in a statement on Tuesday. The company, along with partners Babcock & Wilcox Co. and Air Liquide Process & Construction, expects to spend the next nine months completing Phase 1 of the proposed project, which includes the initial engineering, design, and economic analysis for repowering this unit. In addition, during Phase 1, the partners will validate the project’s scope, cost, schedule, and commercial viability.  

“If Phase 1 results determine the project to be technically and commercially sound, then DOE would authorize Phase 2 of the project, which would include detailed engineering design, schedule and cost analysis as well as environmental studies to support the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and effluent permitting,” Ameren said.

In parallel with the Phase 2 studies, the partners will approach the Illinois legislature for a change in state law to establish a cost recovery mechanism for the project. In addition, project leaders will address the issue of long-term liability with respect to the CO2 pipeline and sequestration, to be supplied by participants other than Ameren and its partners. Successful completion of Phases 1 and 2 studies and enactment of the supporting legislation will be necessary before Phase 3 is authorized.

According to Ameren, Phase 3 will include the procurement and construction activities necessary to repower the Meredosia Plant’s 200-MW Unit 4. If approved by the Ameren Board of Directors, these activities could begin in the second quarter of 2012 with a target completion date in the fourth quarter of 2015.  

Sources: DOE, Ameren, POWERnews

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