Doe Grants $235 Million For Florida Clean Coal Plant
A $235 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that will help develop one of the cleanest coal-fired power plants in the world and create 1,800 jobs. The project is a team effort led by Southern Company.
The plant will be located near Orlando at the Orlando Utilities Commission’s Stanton Energy Center and will use installed advanced emission controls making it one of the cleanest, most energy-efficient coal power plants in the world. The total cost for the coal-based demonstration project is $557 million, of which DOE will contribute $235 million as the federal cost share.
The project was one of two selected to demonstrate advanced power generation systems using Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology, a variation on a natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant in which a coal-derived gas (produced by the coal gasifier) replaces the natural gas. In a combined cycle plant two power generators, or cycles, are used in combination to generate electricity in a very efficient manner.
The gas from the coal is first passed through a gas turbine to generate electricity; then the hot gas leaving the turbine is used to heat water to produce steam to power a steam turbine and generate electricity a second time. This approach increases the amount of electricity that can be generated from a ton of coal and does so in an environmentally sound manner.
IGCC promises dramatically increased efficiency and reliability, improved environmental performance, reduced capital and operating costs, and flexibility to process both high- and low-rank coals.
All projects selected under Round 2 of the CCPI program underwent an intensely competitive evaluation process. Evaluation criteria included the proposer’s plan to share at least 50 percent of the cost of the project and a commitment to repayment of the government’s investment in the demonstration project.
All projects selected under Round 2 of the CCPI program underwent an intensely competitive evaluation process.
Forty technical DOE evaluators reviewed 13 proposals.While competing for $300 million in federal funds, the estimated total cost of the 13 proposals was $6 billion.