$1 billion power plant might be built here

Henderson might be proposed next week as a site for a landmark $1 billion federal-industrial project that would be the first coal-fired power plant in the world to have near-zero pollution emissions.

The FutureGen project also would be an economic boon, requiring a peak construction work force of 1,300 and permanently employ 150 as well as bringing engineers, scientists and others from around the world.




Kentucky Commerce Cabinet communications director Chris Gilligan on Friday invited The Gleaner to a media conference in Frankfort on Tuesday concerning the planned FutureGen clean coal power plant.

"I certainly think you all would find it of interest," Gilligan said, though he later insisted that the matter should be of interest to all counties with an interest in coal.

Local officials confirmed that the Northwest Kentucky Forward economic development agency here is pushing a site in Henderson County for the project. But they couldn't, or didn't, confirm that the local site is the one the state will submit as Kentucky's nominee in the nationwide hunt for a site.

"I'm afraid I'm not able to answer that question," Northwest Kentucky President and CEO Kevin Sheilley said Friday.

"I don't know that for a fact, but I do know all the parts of this are coming together" at the site here, Henderson County Judge-executive Sandy Watkins said.

Those include access to coal, a natural gas pipeline, a river, electric transmission lines and a work force.

"Henderson County looks like a fit," Watkins said.

Gilligan declined to comment on whether the site is here. But, he said, "We think we have a site that is second to none."

FutureGen is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy and a group of coal and utility companies that have formed the non-profit FutureGen Industrial Alliance.

The companies include coal and utility giants Peabody Energy, Consol Energy, Kennecott Energy, Foundation Coal, American Electric Power, Southern Co., Anglo American, BHP Billiton and the China Huaneng Group. They have pledged $250 million toward the project.

They propose the world's first coal-based power plant with practically no pollution. It would even capture 90 percent or more of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas blamed for contributing to global warming, and inject it deep into the ground.

The 275-megawatt plant also would produce hydrogen that proponents say could be used as a clean fuel in turbines or fuel cells.

Proponents also say the prototype plant "will employ cutting-edge technology" that, if successful, could be used at other power plants around the world.

A month ago, the FutureGen alliance announced that nine states planned to propose 22 potential sites for the plant. The deadline for proposals is next Thursday.

FutureGen plans to narrow the list of proposed sites to a group of finalists and select a site by the fall of 2007. Following an environmental review, permitting and design, construction could begin 2010 and be in full-scale operation by 2013.

If a Kentucky site is selected, "It would put us at the forefront of universal technology," the Commerce Cabinet's Gilligan said.

"The eyes of the world would be on Kentucky" to see if a non-polluting coal-fired power plant that doesn't release greenhouse gases could be built.

Indeed, the partners in the project conduct business in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, the People's Republic of China and South Africa as well as the United States.

"This could be monumental," Gilligan said.

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