Read more about DOE's Clean Coal Technology Program

Richardson approved the use of $78 million in Clean Coal Technology funding as the federal share of the $432 million project. The 400-megawatt project will be one of the largest power plant projects in the federal Clean Coal Technology Program. The program provides federal matching funds for projects that demonstrate new ways to use coal while reducing air and other pollutants.

"The Kentucky Pioneer Energy Project will be a showcase facility," Richardson said. "It will employ advanced, clean technology that will benefit the environment, provide low cost power to spur economic growth, and demonstrate how cities can eliminate municipal solid waste by mixing it with coal to produce electricity."

"The Energy Department's participation is a major boost for the project," said Governor Patton. "It means that project financing will be significantly strengthened and the project will be able to incorporate additional high-tech innovations. Importantly for Kentucky consumers, the plant will produce electricity at rates that will be among the lowest in the State."

"This public-private sector partnership we are announcing today will help move Kentucky's coal and electric power industries into the 21^st century with some of the most sophisticated technology now available," said Senator McConnell. "The government's role in this project represents a solid investment in the energy future of Kentucky and this country."

The federal funding is part of agreements reached this week between the Energy Department, Duke Energy Corp. of North Carolina, and Global Energy Inc., the Cincinnati-based parent company of Kentucky Pioneer Energy. Under the agreements, Global Energy will replace Duke Energy as the department's industrial partner in a Clean Coal Technology project that had encountered siting difficulties in southern Illinois.

Plans are to use a site near Trapp, Kentucky, originally slated for a conventional coal-fired power plant nearly two decades ago. When the forecasted demand for electricity failed to materialize in the early 1980s, construction at the East Kentucky Power Cooperative's J.K. Smith site was halted, leaving an excavated tract with plant foundations, an administration building, railroad spur and connections to the electrical grid.

Now, the idle 300-acre tract will become the site for a new type of ultra-clean coal technology. Known as "integrated gasification combined cycle," the advanced process first converts coal to a "synthesis gas." A key advantage of the gasification step is that the synthesis gas can be meticulously cleaned before it is burned to generate electricity.

In the Kentucky project, the gasification process will incorporate an added "advanced fuel technology" feature. Municipal solid waste will be collected and combined with coal to form fuel briquettes for the gasification process. Global is reviewing possible "fuel island" locations around the State where the briquettes will be made.

The synthesis gas will be burned in a combustion turbine to generate electricity and exhaust heat will be used to boil water to drive a steam turbine. The combination of the two types of power generating turbines accounts for the name "combined cycle."

Another high-tech innovation will be the use of a fuel cell in the plant's power generating section. Fuel cells generate electricity using an electrochemical reaction, much like a battery. Because no combustion is involved, fuel cells are among the cleanest power technologies now envisioned. In the Kentucky project, some of the synthesis gas will be directed to a 1.25-megawatt molten carbonate fuel cell to be furnished by FuelCell Energy Inc. of Danbury, CT.

When operations begin in 2002, electricity from the plant will be sold to East Kentucky Power Cooperative under a 20-year contract.

The project is the fourth in the Clean Coal Technology Program to demonstrate coal gasification but the first to be partially fueled by municipal solid waste and to employ a fuel cell. It will also mean $105 million in cost savings for the taxpayer. The Illinois project had been projected to cost $841 million with the Energy Department's share amounting to $183 million. Under the new project agreement, the Energy Department's share will be capped at $78 million.

For more information, contact:
Robert C. Porter, DOE Office of Fossil Energy, (202) 586-6503 e-mail: robert.porter@hq.doe.gov

Technical program contact:
Thomas Sarkus, DOE Federal Energy Technology Center, (412) 386-5981, e-mail: sarkus@fetc.doe.gov