Coal-burning generators got a taste of
what could come under the Bush
Administration's clean coal technology
program this week when Department
of Energy (DOE) Secretary Spencer
Abraham announced $51 million in
funding for new clean coal
demonstration projects designed as
part of the agency's "Power Plant
Improvement Initiative." Bush pushed
for funds to reduce emissions from
coal-fired electricity generation in his
national energy policy, which was
released on May 17, 2001.

Eight projects from seven
different companies were approved
for funding out of the 24 projects
submitted to DOE in April. Most of the
projects will focus on lower-cost
technologies for reducing pollutants
from coal-burning power plants.
However, several projects will focus
on power plant reliability and coal
waste handling, an announcement
from the DOE's National Energy
Technology Laboratory said.
The eight projects included in
this round of funding are part of the
larger initiative, which has a total
budget of $110 million. "The
initiative is a Congressionally directed
effort that will serve as a precursor
to President Bush's clean coal
technology program," the NETL said.
Congress approved the initiative last
year, using funding originally
allocated in the 1980s for clean coal
technology demonstrations.

An additional $61 million will be
contributed towards the cost of the
projects by the companies involved,
although DOE said the exact dollar
amounts have yet to be determined.
The projects are intended to become
"showcases of ways coal plants can
continue generating low-cost
electricity with better performance
and in compliance with tight
environmental standards," Abraham
said in a prepared statement.

The following projects will
receive funding:
* Alliant Energy's Edgewood station
in Sheboygan, WI will receive roughly
$3.7 million in funding over a 15-
month period for a project intended
to reduce NO X emissions. The money
will go to one of three demonstration
projects at the plant using
computational modeling to improve
the performance of the plant and
bring down NO X emissions.
* Arthur D. Little Inc. will receive
roughly $15 million to put a hybrid
pollution control system on a boiler
at Orion Power's Avon Lake plant near
Cleveland, OH. The system, which will
take 38 months to install, uses three
separate technologies to reduce NO X
emissions. Little will contribute
roughly $15.6 million to the cost of
the project.
* AES's Greenridge plant near
Dresden, NY will be the site of a
demonstration project for a multi-pollutant
control system used to
reduce NO X , SO 2 , mercury, acidic gases
and coal particles. DOE is contributing
roughly $14.5 million to the 54-
month project, while project
administrator CONSOL Energy and its
project partners will contribute
approximately $18.3 million.
* Otter Tail Power will receive
roughly $6.5 million from DOE to
build a baghouse system integrated
with an electrostatic precipitator on
its Big Stone plant in South Dakota.
Otter Tail will contribute $6.9 million
to the remaining cost of the system.
* Sunflower Electric Power will
receive roughly $2.8 million to install
new burners used in conjunction with
Powder River Basin coal at its plant
in Garden City, KS. Sunflower will
contribute $3.0 million to the 48-
month project.
* Tampa Electric has two separate
projects that will receive funding
under the initiative. At the Big Bend
power station in Apollo Beach, FL, the
company will apply a computer-controlled
sootblowing system that
will better regulate soot buildup that
can degrade boiler performance. The
36-month project will receive just
under $1 million from the
government and $1.5 million from
Tampa Electric.
The second project from Tampa
Electric will receive roughly $640,000
in federal funds to demonstrate a laser 
system that measures the wear
pattern of the brick liner inside a coal
gasifier. The laser system will be
installed at a Tampa Electric coal
gasification plant in Polk County, FL,
for an 18-month test. The project's
total cost is estimated at $1.7 million.
* A system that converts the sludge
from power-plant scrubbers into light-weight
masonry blocks or concrete
will be tested by Universal
Aggregates during a 43-month project
in Birchwood, VA. DOE plans to
contribute roughly $7.2 million to the
project while Universal will provide
$10.8 million



Mary Schoen
Environmental Strategies
Enron Corp
415.782.7803 (phone)
415.782.7854 (fax)