Failure to embrace ultra-clean coal-burning technology could hurt the competitiveness of the West’s coal industry, an environmental group said Thursday.
The technology, called integrated gasification combined cycle, IGCC, is used at a plant in Indiana and another in Florida but is untried at high altitudes burning lower-grade Western coal.
The gasification process reduces coal to a gas that produces less pollution and carbon dioxide when burned to power electrical generating plants.
Escalating energy demand has led to proposals for a large number of traditional coal-burning plants, the report said. Xcel plans to build a coal-fired addition to its Comanche Power Plant in Pueblo to help meet climbing demand.
Global warming will inevitably result in tighter restrictions on emissions from traditional coal-burning plants, said John Nielsen, a co-author of the report by Western Resource Advocates, a Boulder environmental- research firm.
Those restrictions will increase the cost of burning the coal and boost the price consumers pay for energy.
“It would be a big mistake to stick with (traditional) coal,” Nielsen said. “If the West doesn’t move forward with the technology, there is a risk that Western coal markets will decline as other areas of the country embrace this technology.”
Policymakers should offer energy companies tax credits and other incentives to invest in the technology, which costs more than traditional coal plants, he said.
The report comes at a time when Colorado’s General Assembly is considering legislation that would provide money from state severance taxes to study the technology.
Xcel Energy supports the legislation and wants to build a demonstration plant to test gasification technology, said Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz.
But electricity demand is growing rapidly, and Xcel can’t wait for the technology to be proven to increase its generating capacity, Stutz said.
“The reality of the situation is that IGCC technology isn’t there yet, it is not viable,” he said. “We think it might be, but it needs to be proven at high altitude and with Western coal.”
The federal government should help solve any technological problems, said Jim Sims, president of the Western Business Roundtable, a regional group of natural-resource industries. Other cutting-edge technologies also should be developed, he added.
“Sometimes IGCC is presented as the silver bullet,” Sims said. “It may turn out to be, but there could be others that may be better. We are arguing for increased investment for a range of technologies.”
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
