The US Department of Energy has confirmed it signed a cooperative agreement with the plant’s backer, the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, allowing the start of design for the carbon capture and storage project.

“We believe FutureGen 2.0 is an important step in making economic, commercial scale CCS a reality,” outgoing energy secretary Steven Chu confirmed.

“The project is important part of a portfolio of approaches we are pursuing to reduce carbon emissions from existing coal-fired power plants and perhaps other large, localized CO2 emitters,” Chu, who last week announced he was stepping down from his post, said.

The first FutureGen phase included important technical and financial milestones, including the identification of a sequestration site, which it found in Morgan County.

It also completed preliminary characterization and test drilling and received a commitment from the Illinois Commerce Commission to cover the project’s output under its power purchasing plans.

The cooperative agreement will help advance design as well as pre-construction and engineering for the retrofitted facility.

“Today’s announcement from the Department of Energy that the FutureGen project is moving forward with Phase II shows a strong commitment from the Obama Administration to create jobs and demonstrate the future of low-carbon-emission coal power right here in central Illinois,” US senator Dick Durbin said.

Illinois governor Pat Quinn reiterated that FutureGen was a welcome addition to the state and touted its future success.

“We look forward to working with all of the project partners to see that FutureGen 2.0 will move forward, and that the reality of this first-of-its-kind project will be realized in Illinois,” he said.

FutureGen was initially intended to build a power plant in Mattoon in eastern Illinois and store CO2 there. Those plans, however, were not to be.

The revamped project was shelved by the US government and a redesign set for construction in Illinois was unveiled in 2011.

Morgan County was selected as the preferred site for FutureGen 2.0 in February of that year following an open and competitive solicitation process.

When in operation – developers are anticipating a 2017 start – FutureGen is expected to create 125 permanent direct jobs and about 1000 jobs for the plant site conversion.

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

The design plan includes upgrading the Meredosia Energy Center’s unit 4 with oxy-combustion technology to capture about 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.