its a waiting game ..., page-42

Good post Bleasby, I agree with pretty much everything you said and have the same concerns about CXY's approach.

Anyway, I've just found a good article about Ergo's and Eskom's UCG program. It's very recent, dated August 2009 and there's a couple of parts I found interesting -

.....Duvenage and Beeslaar (the project leaders) are cautiously enthusiastic about the project. “It’s fun. Sometimes you want to take another 10 steps (towards production),” says Duvenage. “But you have to take it slowly, stick to just four steps. Research is about getting each step exactly right first.....

But wait a second, I thought Ergo's technology was proven and ready for full scale commercial production. Why are they still trying to get things right after 6 years of planning and over 2 years of gas production? I thought the technology was 'right' since 10 years ago in Chinchilla?

.....Those next steps include co- firing the gas stream from the pilot at the Majuba Power Station later this year. A 40MW demonstration plant should go online mid-2013, to be succeeded in turn by a proposed 2100MW full-scale power facility from 2017 if all goes well with the demonstration.....

A 40MW DEMONSTRATION PLANT by mid 2013??? That's almost 4 years away. I'm having a bit of trouble understanding this.
Why would Eskom, the seventh biggest utility company in the world, be waiting over 6 years since first production of UCG gas until they build their first (very small) commercial scale demonstration plant? If they thought the technology was good enough, why aren't they building it now?


Here's the full article...

http://www.netassets.co.za/article.aspx?id=1058551