After decades of decline for the Illinois coal industry, new coal-fed power plant technologies promise to help Illinois responsibly tap its vast reserves, grow the central and southern Illinois economy and hold energy prices down.
These environmentally advanced technologies will produce electricity while dramatically lowering emissions and capturing and permanently storing more than 50 percent of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide
(CO2) that would otherwise enter the atmosphere.
The first such facility proposed for the state, and one of the first in the nation, is the Taylorville Energy Center (TEC), which will be one of the most environmentally friendly power plants in the world that uses coal. Its Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) technology will allow the plant to:
|
• Capture more than 50% of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) |
| • Create a needed new market for the long-struggling Illinois coal industry |
| • Provide economic development for job-starved areas of the state |
| • Increase protection of the environment and public health |
| • Save millions annually on power costs |
To encourage development of environmentally advanced plants, the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate Bill 1987 (SB 1987), the Clean Coal Portfolio Standard Act. SB 1987 requires large utilities to enter into long-term, cost-based contracts to purchase up to 5 percent of their electricity from clean coal facilities that capture at least 50 percent of their greenhouse gas emissions. The cost-based approach was proposed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, was developed jointly with the Citizens Utility Board, and is designed to protect consumers.
Because power from the Taylorville Energy Center is intended to be generated 24/7, it consistently would be replacing power from higher emitting generators and would provide significant reductions in greenhouse gases (a net reduction of CO2 emissions of approximately 1.9 million tons/year), as well as pollutants.
|
