President Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard are holding bilateral discussions today at the White House, talking about our two countries’ joint political and economic interests.
One of the economic interests that the American and Australian private sectors have been collaborating on are technologies that allow us to use coal, one of the world’s most affordable and reliable energy sources, with an increasingly smaller environmental footprint.
In Texas, Australia’s Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute is involved in a study to see how best to provide carbon capture technology for Tenaska’s Trailblazer coal plant. The Abilene Reporter-News reports:
To build support for the Nolan County coal-fired plant, Tenaska has touted economic benefits like 100 permanent jobs and 1,500 jobs at the peak of the plant’s five-year construction period … Work is under way on an engineering and design study for the carbon capture technology to be used in the plant. The study, being done by Irving-based Fluor, which Tenaska has said will provide the carbon capture technology used in the Trailblazer plant, could be completed by mid-year, Manroe said. She said the study is being funded through a grant from the Australia-based Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. The grant, announced in October, is for $7.7 million, and Manroe said a Tenaska official had traveled to Australia to talk about Tenaska’s progress with the project.
In Illinois, an alliance of companies, including those from America and Australia, just announced their decision for Meredosia County to host the carbon storage facility for the FutureGen 2.0 project. The Jacksonville Journal-Courier [IL] reports:
It’s easy to see how Meredosia is on the map worldwide when looking at FutureGen 2.0, the only project in the world that has international participation with companies from as far as London, China and Australia. These companies make up the FutureGen Alliance, a non-profit group that first partnered with the Department of Energy in 2005 and now play the role in building a pipeline infrastructure from the Meredosia power plant to the storage facility, FutureGen Alliance spokesman Lawrence Pacheco said. There are 10 companies presently involved — Alpha Natural Resources; Anglo American Services Ltd. Of London; Caterpillar Inc. of Illinois; CONSOL Energy of Pennsylvania; Louisville Gas & Electric/Kentucky Utilities; Exelon Corporation; Peabody Energy Corp. of Missouri; Rio Tinto Energy America Services of Wyoming; and Xstrata Coal Pty Ltd. Of Australia. “The reason for this is when the facility is operating, we will learn lessons that can be replicated by other facilities around the world,” Pacheco said. “This project will bring a lot of international attention to Illinois as other industrial plants around the world look at the success of FutureGen.”
The Obama administration has already made significant investments in advanced coal technologies a domestic and international priority. Just a month and a half ago, President Obama recommitted to working with China on “wind power, smart grids and cleaner coal.” And Obama’s Secretary of Energy Steven Chu outlined that over ten major advanced coal technology projects received over $4 billion in government investments, with $7 billion in matching investments from the private sector.
For more information about how carbon capture and storage technologies work in places like Texas and Illinois, click here.