Project developer FutureGen Alliance said it could proceed with the final permits for its chosen location in Morgan County and would no longer maintain its alternate sites in Christian and Douglas counties.
“Affirming Morgan County as the preferred site for FutureGen 2.0 is a significant step forward for the project,” FutureGen Alliance chief executive Ken Humphreys said.
“The Morgan County community has been extremely welcoming and we look forward to continuing our partnership and moving FutureGen 2.0 forward.”
Morgan County was initially selected as the preferred site for FutureGen 2.0 in February 2011 following an open and competitive solicitation process.
“Since that time, the alliance has tested the geologic conditions at the proposed storage site and has found that the site is geologically stable, has a regionally extensive primary caprock formation and secondary caprock formations and has a reservoir capacity sufficient to permanently store the CO2 that will be generated by the FutureGen 2.0 project,” Humphreys said.
“Because the alliance is confident that the site meets regulatory requirements, it is proceeding with [the] US Environmental Protection Agency permit.”
The group also acquired the needed underground pore space for the storage site and said desktop and field environmental studies had confirmed the absence of any sensitive environmental resources the project could affect.
In March, the FutureGen Alliance told local news outlet WLDS it hoped to start operations in 2017.
“We want to work towards a power purchase agreement, as well as completing all the permits in 2013, which puts us at a construction start in the first quarter of 2014 and operations – both power generation and injection – in 2017,” Humphreys said at the time.
The revamped project was originally shelved by the US government and a redesign set for construction in Illinois was unveiled last year.
When in operation, FutureGen is expected to create 125 permanent direct jobs and about 1000 jobs for the plant site conversion.
In January, the FutureGen Alliance sold the land for the original site back to the seller for a loss.
The land in Mattoon, Illinois, was sold back to Coles Together for $700,000, though it was originally purchased for $3.5 million.
FutureGen 2.0 is set to be a first-of-its-kind near-zero emissions power plant.
The design plan includes upgrading the Meredosia Energy Center’s unit 4 with oxy-combustion technology to capture about 90% of the plant’s carbon emissions.
Using safe and proven pipeline technology, the CO2 will then be transported and stored underground permanently at a nearby storage site.
FutureGen 2.0 has a total price tag of $1.3 billion, $1 billion of which has been committed in federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
