Home > News

Xcel looks to replace polluting coal-fired plants
Utility to spend $3.5 mil toward technology that will produce clean gas
By Lou Christopher
achris25@mscd.edu

Xcel Energy has committed $3.5 million to develop new technology in Colorado that would replace pulverized coal-fired power plants, which are known to release harmful emissions into the environment.

Integrated gasification combined-cycle coal technology, or IGCC, is a technology used in power plants that turns coal into a source of clean fuel. IGCC clean-coal technology uses a chemical process to turn coal into a gas that is then burned in a modified combustion turbine to generate electricity.

According to an Environmental Protection Agency report, IGCC is a cleaner way to generate power from coal. It can lower air emissions and water usage and produces less solid waste.

The process can lower harmful criteria air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide, according to Ethnie Groves, spokesperson for Xcel Energy. Criteria air pollutants are pollutants regulated by the EPA to limit the output of harmful emissions. Groves also said the technology could lower particulate matter and carbon monoxide by 25 to 90 percent.

The IGCC power plant being proposed in Colorado will also use carbon dioxide capturing technology.

Many experts believe large amounts of carbon dioxide, in the form of greenhouse gases, trap heat in the atmosphere and cause global weather changes and global warming. No coal-fired power plants currently use carbon dioxide capturing, and the proposed plant would be the first in the U.S. to utilize the technology.

“This IGCC project would be the first coal-fueled IGCC plant in the nation to capture a portion of its CO2 emissions,” an Xcel Energy news release said.

The proposed plant would be a 300-350-megawatt facility, providing enough electricity for up to 350,000 homes in Colorado. One megawatt can supply enough electricity for about 1,000 homes.

The plant’s estimated cost is between $500 million and $1 billion. More than $3 million has already been spent on engineering studies and project development activities.

Xcel Energy said it plans to file an application for approval of the project with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission by the end of 2007.

After approval, Xcel plans to start construction on the new IGCC power plant after 2009 with a completion date set for 2013. The project leader will be Mary Fisher, vice president for Colorado resource development for Xcel Energy.

The federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 holds a number of provisions that allow for funding for IGCC development, particularly with the Rocky Mountain region in mind. The act authorizes up to $200 million a year for the funding of clean-coal technologies, and also provides for a facility to be built at an elevation at or above 4,000 feet using western coal, a lower quality coal found in the western half of the U.S.

According to Groves, Xcel Energy has not chosen a site for the proposed power plant.

Two IGCC power plants are currently in operation in the United States. Wabash River IGCC in Indiana is a 262-megawatt facility and Polk Power Station IGCC in Florida is a 250-megawatt facility.

The capital cost for an IGCC plant is around 20 to 25 percent more than a super critical steam plant, such as the one currently being built in Pueblo by Xcel Energy that will produce 750 megawatts of power.

The cost for the consumer would probably go up, Groves said. The upside, however, is that the environmental impact will be far less of a burden.