On Friday, US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance were able to ink a provisional agreement on the planned Mattoon, Illinois plant and would issue a record of decision by the middle of next month.

A rapid restart of the program stalled by the previous federal government is expected to include site-specific completion of preliminary design, the release of an updated cost estimate and a funding plan development, an expansion of the alliance and, potentially, additional subsurface characterization.

Funding has poured back into the project with the DOE chipping in $US1.073 billion and $1 billion from Recovery Act funds.

The FutureGen Alliance of coal producers and power utilities will foot an anticipated $400-600 million of the bill, based on a $20-30 million goal from each of the group’s 20 member companies.

DOE said it would support the alliance in efforts to raise additional non-federal funds, including options, while there were other plans to hold a residual interests auction in the late fall once the plant’s research was complete.

"This important step forward for FutureGen reflects [the Obama] administration's commitment to rapidly developing carbon capture and sequestration technology as part of a comprehensive plan to create jobs, develop clean energy and reduce climate change pollution," Chu said.

"The FutureGen project holds great promise as a flagship facility to demonstrate carbon capture and storage at commercial scale.

“Developing this technology is critically important for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the US, and around the world."

Illinois Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin said the agreement was “historic” and thanked the state and federal regulators that helped keep the project alive.

"In my time in Congress, I can't recall a project that has greater scientific and practical significance than FutureGen,” he said.

After reviewing fundraising for the project as well as a detailed cost estimate, DOE and the alliance will make a decision on the project’s advancement in early 2010.

“Both parties agree that a decision to move forward is the preferred outcome and plan to reach a revised cooperative agreement that will include a funding plan for the full project,” Chu said.

Words of support for FutureGen’s renewed momentum have emerged from different areas of the industry.

One message was Illinois state Representative Tim Johnson, who penned a letter to new US President Barack Obama requesting a “sign of good faith” through a rapid release of federal funding for site-specific activities and construction.

“With all due respect, current economic conditions, coupled with need for FutureGen’s technology, demand immediate action,” he said.

He also noted that Obama, then a US Senator, was one of the delegates who petitioned President George W Bush in February 2008 about the project, and requested the Commander in Chief honor his initial commitment.

“I know we both believe that clean coal technology can help make our country energy independent,” Johnson said.

“We can make this work in America and FutureGen will move us closer towards the goal of a greener world.”

Pro-industry group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, commended the administration for reinstating FutureGen and putting its development on the fast track.

"It is reassuring to know that the president supports the development and implementation of clean coal technology into our energy portfolio,” ACCCE officials said.

“Given that FutureGen is the first commercial-scale, ‘fully integrated’ carbon capture and sequestration project in the country, we are hopeful that its success will become a blueprint for the coal-based electricity sector going forward."

The 444-acre Mattoon site, chosen in late 2007 as FutureGen’s home, was in the running with three other finalist cities – Tuscola, Illinois, Jewett, Texas and Odessa, Texas – that were selected more than a year prior in July 2006.

The facility will use an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and capture and store 90% of carbon dioxide emissions expelled, sequestering it in the geological sandstone reservoirs of Mt Simon more than one mile underground.

Construction is anticipated to begin in 2010 and be fully operational by 2013, bringing an estimated 1300 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs.

It will produce 275 megawatts of electric power, or enough electricity to power 150,000 homes, as well as hydrogen for fuel-cell technology.

Members of the FutureGen Alliance include American Electric Power, Anglo American, BHP Billiton, the China Huaneng Group, Consol Energy, E ON US, Foundation Coal, Luminant, Rio Tinto Energy America, Peabody Energy, PPL Corporation, Southern Company and Xstrata Coal.