DOE scraps advanced coal fired power plant in Illinois

Plans to build a nearly emissions-free coal fired power plant in Illinois have been thrown into chaos now that the Department of Energy has pulled out of the project. Plans for the FutureGen plant began over a decade ago with a cost of about $1 billion. With the cost now over $1.8 billion, DOE as decided to bail out the project. DOE was going to cover 75 percent of the cost of the plant that was to produce electricity and hydrogen and feature carbon capture and sequestration. Instead, the Energy Department will now take the money and spread it among multiple other projects. The money will be used to pay only for the carbon capture and sequestration, while partner companies will have to fund the rest of the plant. The FutureGen Alliance still wants to proceed with the project. However, they haven't been able to raise the necessary funding prior to the DOE pullout. It's not clear how they will replace the government funding. The Energy Department came to the conclusion that the planned facility was not commercially viable. However, it's not clear what part of it they consider not workable. If it's the carbon capture and storage, redirecting it to several other projects may not make it any better.
[Source: Forecast Earth]