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Clean Coal
As I See It
Say what you will about the State of New York, but they sure appear to be smarter than their neighbors to the south. A $1.5 billion clean coal-burning plant is in the works in western New York. Planned on the site of a traditional coal-burning plant (sound familiar?) north of Buffalo, the plant is to be built by NRG Energy. The plant will host approximately 100 new full time jobs and 1,000 construction jobs, in an area that can certainly use the work accordingly to Tony Coppola, business manager for Buffalo Local 41. "This is a dream come true for our area" Coppla added. "Projects worth $1.5 billion don't come knocking on your door every day."
The New York Power Authority in December gave NRG conditional award of a contract to build the 680-megawatt plant in Tonawanda adjacent to the existing Huntley plant. The facility will convert coal to synthetic gas and remove the polluting sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury before combustion. The planed "integrated gasification combined cycle" facility would capture 95 percent of the chemical by-products produced in the coal-burning process. The plant is expected to take five years to build, and slated to be operational by 2013.
There are two other clean coal plants with similar technology in the United States, located in Indiana and Florida. In April, an IBEW construction and utility delegation from western New York visited the Indiana facility, which is represented by Terre Haute Local 725. Syracuse Local 97 member Phil Wilcox has taken leave of absence from his job as a sub-station electrician to promote the project for NRG Energy.
'This plant represents energy independence and homeland security and utilizes the intellectual capital of our scientists by delivering an environmentally responsible plan to capture carbon dioxide", Wilcox said. "We can break our addiction to imported oil in a way that creates jobs for IBEW members".
Advocates of the project acknowledge the next challenge for the federal government is the issue of carbon dioxide sequestration, and how to safely store the captured carbon dioxide. Several bills pending in the Senate address this subject.
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For every reference in this article to the existing Huntley plant near Buffalo, we should be substituting, "NRG's Indian River facility near Millsboro, Delaware".
The U.S. senate recently authorized $5 million to study where wind farms would best be located along the East Coast. That $5 million could certainly have been earmarked toward projects to provide an awful lot of union jobs!
It is currently estimated that wind power represents less than 1 percent of energy consumption in the U.S. today, lagging far behind more conventional sources, e.g., coal, oil, natural gas, etc. And twenty-eight coastal states use about 78 percent of the electricity nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Why in the world the State of Delaware would choose to roll the dice on this issue and award the region's future power needs to a wind farm is certainly bewildering to me, especially since it's estimated that Bluewater's proposal for 200 turbines would cost residential customers an extra $22 a month.
One can only assume it had a lot to do with the NIMBY affect, even though the I.R. plant has been operating since 1956, long before most of the "come heres", came here. As usual, with politicians, the squeaky wheels get the grease.
One final thought on this. If Blue water is permitted to proceed as the provider, and the Public Service Commission orders a gas turbine back-up facility, then that facility should be built by NRG, not Delmarva. Delmarva Power didn't want power plants…remember?
Any gas turbine should be constructed at NRG's Millsboro site, and ran by the qualified personal at the existing NRG facility.
MED
Portions of this article reprinted from the IBEW "Electrical Worker June 2007".
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