Environmental Solutions
The Industry Is Moving to Near-Zero Emissions
America has a great track record of improving emissions as gross domestic product (GDP) increases and the population grows. Coal used for electricity generation has tripled since 1970 as key criteria emissions have been reduced by more than half, thanks to tens of billions of dollars of investments in clean coal technologies by the nation’s electric utilities.
The Goal of Near-Zero Emissions and Carbon Management
As use of secure and reliable coal-based electricity continues to grow, emissions from coal-fueled generating plants are being dramatically reduced. New emission standards are leading to continued environmental improvement, toward the ultimate goal of near-zero emissions.
Fast Facts
- Limiting use of coal, which fuels half of U.S. electricity, would result in greater use of expensive natural gas, which has cost $400 billion more than expected since the beginning of this decade.
- More than 29 million Americans can’t afford their energy bills, and the high price of natural gas has put 3 million Americans out of work since 2000.
Through a number of voluntary and industry-based initiatives, we can reach the goal of near-zero emissions and carbon management for coal-based energy. There is a practical three-step technology path toward near-zero emissions and carbon capture and sequestration:
Step One: Build out the next generation of state-of-the-art coal-fueled plants to ensure electric reliability. Most proposed clean coal plants are “advanced combustion” featuring efficient supercritical technologies.
Dozens of coal-fueled power plants are being built around the country. The efficiencies these plants will gain will make their carbon emissions about 15 percent lower than the current fleet.
Step Two: Fund and build the more than $1 billion FutureGen prototype, a bipartisan public and private initiative building a near-zero emissions coal plant that would create electricity with hydrogen-powered turbines and sequester carbon dioxide in deep geologic formations.
FutureGen Targets Near-Zero Emissions and Carbon Management
The FutureGen Alliance represents a dozen global energy companies partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy to commercialize FutureGen, a public-private partnership to design, build, and operate the world's first coal-fueled, near-zero emissions power plant.
The governments of the United States, Australia, the People’s Republic of China, India and South Korea are participating in development of FutureGen with the U.S. Department of Energy, a collaboration representing nearly half the world’s population. The commercial-scale FutureGen plant will prove the technical and economic feasibility of producing low-cost electricity and hydrogen from coal while nearly eliminating emissions. It will also support testing and commercialization of technologies focused on generating clean power, capturing and permanently storing carbon dioxide and producing hydrogen. In the process, FutureGen will create unique opportunities for scientific exploration, education and stakeholder engagement.
Step Three: Aggressively pursue technologies to capture carbon dioxide from existing coal plants. With the advent of these technologies, all coal plants are “carbon-capture ready.”
Technology for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) has been used for enhanced oil recovery for more than 30 years. A number of promising capture and sequestration technologies are being piloted and tested at a commercial scale. The nation has hundreds of years of capacity for geologic storage and must also demonstrate that storage is permanent.
Voluntary efforts to reduce emissions and improve carbon intensity are also under way. The Power Systems Development Facility in Wilsonville, Alabama, is among the nation’s premier test sites for gasification technology.
Research is being advanced in partnership with Southern Company and the U.S. Department of Energy. As a result, Southern is developing a commercial plant in central Florida using this technology.
All of these collective, innovative and voluntary efforts will help us achieve continuous environmental improvement while balancing the need for a secure energy supply that also fuels economic security.