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According to the Associated Press, the FutureGen Alliance signed an agreement to purchase 400 acres of land outside of Mattoon, about an hour south of Champaign, for $US6.5 million.
Local newspaper the Journal-Gazette outlined the cost as being split between the alliance at $3.5 million and the county’s economic development organisation Coles Together providing the balance. The purchase was just in time, as the option for the land’s purchase was set to expire Thursday.
“It’s a contractual obligation by both parties,” Coles Together president Angela Griffin told the paper.
“This should go a long way to convince the public that they are committed to this site.”
Earlier this year, the US Department of Energy shelved the project and removed its funding commitment, but according to Griffin the project still has solid legs.
“There is very little uncertainty at the federal level,” she said to the J-G.
“Both presidential candidates have talked in their energy policies about FutureGen’s technology and how we need to employ that technology.”
The companies and local officials believe the town of Mattoon was ultimately rejected because of politics, but with a new incoming administration there stands a possibility for reconsideration of FutureGen, reported the AP.
The facility’s design includes the use of integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology to capture and store 90% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions expelled, sequestering it in the geological sandstone reservoirs of Mt Simon more than one mile underground.
Construction was anticipated to begin in 2010 and the plant to be fully operational by 2013, producing 275 megawatts of electric power, or enough electricity to power 150,000 homes, as well as hydrogen for fuel-cell technology.
Members of the FutureGen Alliance include American Electric Power, Anglo American, BHP Billiton, the China Huaneng Group, Consol Energy, E.ON US, Foundation Coal, Luminant, Rio Tinto Energy America, Peabody Energy, PPL Corporation, Southern Company and Xstrata Coal.
