clean coal plan gets fast track theaustralian

Clean coal plan gets fast track
Sean Parnell From:
The Australian December 14, 2009 12:00AM

A MAJOR clean coal power plant and carbon storage project is being considered for planning approval in Queensland, even though a feasibility assessment has not been completed and a site is yet to be found, along with the necessary $4.2 billion in funding.
The Bligh government confirmed on Friday that Co-ordinator-General Colin Jensen had given significant project status to ZeroGen, which is wholly owned by the state with initial backing from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Shell and the coal industry.

The declaration signals the start of comprehensive environmental assessments, even though the project is still at the pre-feasibility stage.

Most stakeholders are awaiting carbon policies to determine the way forward.

A feasibility study, if warranted, would not be completed for almost two years.

But ZeroGen has considerable political support.

The Bligh government declared ZeroGen capable of being one of the first companies in the world to build a commercial-scale power plant -- generating the equivalent of 400 megawatts -- combined with geosequestration technology.

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Queensland Mines and Energy Minister Stephen Robertson said the Bligh government was showing its commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

"Integrating a coal gasification power plant with the capture and storage of (carbon dioxide) emissions to generate low-emission electricity for the national electricity market will put Queensland in the driver's seat when it comes to clean coal technology," Mr Robertson said.

The Rudd government last week announced ZeroGen was one of four projects for its $2bn carbon capture and storage flagships program.

But even if successful, ZeroGen would only share in $120 million in commonwealth funding for pre-feasibility work, and the proponents are operating on tight timeframes in their bid to have the power plant running by late 2015.

ZeroGen chief executive Tony Tarr said last week the project would help to safeguard Queensland's coal industry while putting the state at the forefront of technological development.

"It is widely understood that if several large-scale integrated CCS (carbon capture and storage) projects are not developed within the next decade, there is a real possibility we won't be able to deploy the technology in time to prevent greenhouse gas emissions from exceeding reasonable limits," Dr Tarr said.

Federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the commonwealth government was, through its CCS flagships program, contributing to the G8 goal of at least 20 large-scale integrated CCS projects globally by 2020.

Drilling tests have continued in central Queensland's Northern Denison Trough in an effort to find a location for about 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to be stored over the life of the project.

The project was greatly revamped early last year, when its proponents succumbed to pressure to double ZeroGen's planned electricity output and fast-track development of a commercially viable plant.