Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham launched the project as part of President Bush's Clean Coal Power Initiative.

Development of the new technology, atmospheric-pressure circulating fluidized-bed combustion, is a joint-venture between the Department of Energy (DOE) and Western Greenbrier Co-Generation.

Construction of the Western Greenbrier power plant is expected to begin in early 2006.

It is one of eight projects selected last year from among 36 proposals. The Energy Department's share of the project is $107 million.

When operational, the power plant will produce 85 to 90 megawatts of electricity, up to 30,000 pounds of steam per hour, and about 400 million Btu per hour of low-temperature waste heat.

The Greenbrier project will consume nearby waste-coal refuse, effectively reducing the total estimate of nearly 400 million tons located in several hundred Southern West Virginia sites. The refuse carries an estimated cleanup cost of $2 billion to $3 billion, which State Department of Environmental Protection officials characterize as West Virginia's premier environmental hazard.

The commercialization plan for the Greenbrier Co-Production Demonstration Project envisions a network of larger facilities that could ultimately eliminate most of the coal-waste in the eastern coal region of the United States.

The plant will also return fly ash to the Anjean waste-coal pile to neutralize acid runoff, enhancing land restoration for productive use.

Other pluses from the project include consumption of wood waste from local forestry operations, which will be combined with coal combustion ash for co-production of up to 10,000 bricks per day.