By David A. Hill

In the Utopian world of some clean energy advocates, where
nature powers all things, the need for coal-fired utility plants
would be nonexistent, along with the carbon emissions these
power sources produce.

In the real world, however, coal is the spouse you can’t live
with and you can’t live without. While there is no denying it is
a significant contributor to greenhouse gases, coal generates
more than half our nation’s electricity, and electrical demand
is growing twice as fast as capacity.

Despite the impressive rise of renewables such as wind, solar, biofuels, and geothermal - which we chronicle on a daily basis at CEN - there has been no development of a large-scale baseload generation source matching the efficiency and cost effectiveness of coal, which we have in abundance here in the Rocky Mountain West as well as other regions of the country. Let’s also remember that the coal industry continues to employ thousands of workers at a time when a serious economic slump is taking hold.

Another way to view the current energy reality is to understand that citizens, businesses and communities will not realize the full benefits of clean energy resources without a substantial upgrade to our electrical grid system. All the renewable resources being added to the energy mix won’t amount to much if the grid cannot handle the added power. Any major upgrade of the electrical power grid in this country must involve a significant coal contribution, at least for the foreseeable future.

In the meantime, coal-powered utility plants will provide the vast majority of baseload electrical generation for years to come while the industry continues to make strides in emissions reduction.

Going Green But Still Coal Reliant

Given the realities of our energy situation, Joe Lucas, Vice
President of Communications for the American Coalition for Clean
Coal Electricity (ACCCE), says a moratorium on coal-driven
plants is not realistic. He points out that the new facilities
being proposed today will not come online until 10 to 12 years
down the road when they will be able to take advantage of new
technologies for carbon capture.

Another indication of the coal paradox are the moves of Xcel
Energy. The company has received plaudits for its plans to shut
down two existing coal-fired plants in Colorado, and it
continues to build an arsenal of solar and wind resources.
Nevertheless, Colorado’s largest utility is also seeking
regulatory approval for construction of a 750-megawatt,
coal-fired generator at the company’s Comanche Station just
outside Pueblo. Called a “least-cost plan,” the move is part of
the utility’s strategy for filling power needs over the next
decade.

The Clean Coal Debate

We heard a lot of chatter about “clean coal” in the recent
Presidential election, particularly toward the end of the
campaign. McCain hammered the President Elect on the issue,
reprising an Obama comment back in February that seemed to
suggest he would be anti-coal.

For its part, the incoming Obama administration insists it does
support investment in clean coal technology as part of its
ten-year, 150 billion dollar initiative to develop clean energy
of all kinds. “The Obama-Biden Department of Energy is committed
to developing five ‘first-of-a-kind’ commercial scale coal-fired
plants with carbon capture and sequestration here in the United
States,” says Biden spokesman David Wade.

What is clean coal technology? A process, according to the
ACCCE’s Lucas.

“It’s like talking about medical technology, certainly a very
broad term. In much the same way, clean coal technology is a
phrase used to describe technical process improvements that have
been used for more than 30 years to reduce the environmental
impact of coal,” says Lucas.

“For example, back 15 to 20 years ago, a scrubber was what we
talked about when referring to clean coal. A few years later
further SO2 emissions reduction took place. The next step is
minimizing nitrous oxide and mercury reduction.”

“Today, we can build power plants that have 98 percent SO2
capture,” Lucas tells Colorado Energy News. “Going forward we
are developing new technologies that will significantly upgrade
the process of carbon capture. As far as the new administration
and congress are concerned, the bit is in the mouth when it
comes to the carbon capture issue. We believe any carbon capture
program must meet three essential prerequisites - reduce
emissions, protect the environment and maintain energy security.
All this needs to be accomplished while keeping costs down.”

A virtually impossible task without coal, Lucas contends.

Another potential fly in the ointment - varying regional
emission reduction and carbon capture policies that are being
proposed. The ACCCE points out that if a patchwork system of
different regulations is allowed to develop, the results could
delay and in some cases, inhibit real emissions reduction
progress on a broad scale.

Amidst the intense national debate on coal, Lucas and his
organization make no apologies for their strong advocacy. There
is no question where their interests lie. That said, it is
refreshing to see ACCCE’s level approach in which they readily
acknowledge the validity of viewpoints running counter to their
own.

Start and Stops on the Clean Coal Express

Researchers at Southern Illinois University are helping to
further the concept of clean coal technology. “What we need to
study is how can we do it clean; in other words, how can we do
it utilizing clean coal,” said John Mead, Director of the
University’s Coal Research Center.

It sounds like a good plan, but Mead says true clean coal is
still in experimental form and has yet to be used in any major
commercial ventures. “We can’t do this with research alone, or
we never get to prove that technology and get it to that
important commercial business scale,” Mead emphasizes.

Clean coal technology can put a big dent in the country’s
dependence on foreign oil, according to Mead. Last December it
looked like Illinois would have the chance to prove clean coal
can actually work when the town of Mattoon was announced as the
location for FutureGen, the near-zero emission power plant that would
store carbon dioxide emissions underground instead of releasing them into
the atmosphere. However, the Energy Department pulled the plug. Mead
says without the government’s help, clean coal may not become a reality.

“We don’t know that much, and to ask industry or the private
sector to risk all that capital, I think is to move on their
shoulders risk they may not want to touch,” says Mead.

President Elect Obama seems to agree and has said he favors a
government-industry coalition when it comes to developing clean
coal programs.

A Work in Progress

You wouldn’t know it from reading environmental blogs, but great
progress has been made in cleaning up coal fired processes.
Plants permitted today are 85 to 90 percent cleaner than
existing older facilities. The one area that remains a huge
challenge is CO2 emissions, and meeting it could be the final
chapter of the clean coal saga.

“Silver buckshot is not a silver bullet,” concludes ACCCE’s
Lucas. “Coal has to be part of our energy future for many years
to come, and clean coal technology will be integral to the
process.”