According to local news outlet WLDS, chief operating officer Ken Humphreys said that a calendar had been set.

“We want to work towards a power purchase agreement, as well as completing all the permits in 2013, which puts us at a construction start in the first quarter of 2014 and operations – both power generation and injection – in 2017,” he said.

The revamped project was originally shelved by the US government administration and a redesign set for construction in Illinois was unveiled last year.

The news outlet reported that Humphreys said the FutureGen Alliance was in final negotiations with Ameren for the site.

“Acquiring ownership of unit 4 of the plant and the associated coal infrastructure, the permits that go with the facility, as well as the access to the grid, [there are] a lot of assets at that facility that reduce the project risk, reduce the project cost and really increase the probability that we push this over the finish line,” he said.

He said the timeline for the start of the project would most efficiently make use of the Department of Energy’s $US1 billion earmark.

“We need to be able to have a construction start decision in the first quarter of 2014 in order to, in a responsible way, begin spending the stimulus dollars for this project in Illinois,” Humphreys told WLDS, adding that the funds must be used by September 30, 2015.

When in operation, FutureGen is expected to create 125 permanent direct jobs and about 1000 jobs for the plant site conversion.

In January, the FutureGen Alliance sold the land for the original site back to the seller for a loss.

The land in Mattoon, Illinois, was sold back to Coles Together for $700,000, though it was originally purchased for $3.5 million.

The funds from the sale will be redirected into the new FutureGen 2.0 project and Coles Together said at the time it would move ahead with economic development for the site.

FutureGen 2.0 is set to be a first-of-its-kind near-zero emissions power plant.

The design plan includes the upgrading the Meredosia Energy Center’s unit 4 with oxy-combustion technology to capture approximately 90% of the plant’s carbon emissions.

Using safe and proven pipeline technology, the CO2 will then be transported and stored underground permanently at a nearby storage site.

FutureGen 2.0 has a total price tag of $1.3 billion, $1 billion of which has been committed in federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.