"The Rocky Mountain News" recently published an edited version of an article by Evergreen President and CEO Kevin Collins about how refined coal can offer a near-term solution to energy and environmental challenges.  An immage of how the article appeared is attached to this blog entry. The article, in its entirty, appears below.

Colorado’s New Thinking About an Old Energy Source

By

Kevin R. Collins

President and CEO, Evergreen Energy Inc.

 

Xcel Energy’s postponement of an advanced clean coal power plant that captures and buries its greenhouse gas emissions comes at a time when U.S. demand for electricity will increase 17.7 percent in the next decade while supply is expected to grow only 8.4 percent.

Reserve generating capacity, normally 10 to 15 percent, could be down to one or zero percent in some places, and Yale Professor Charles Perrow, who follows power supply shortfalls, says “I’m prepared to see many more blackouts occurring. . . .it’s really going to be a freight train running into disaster.”

This is not an encouraging scenario, to say the least. While a variety of energy options exist, each possesses its own challenge. Nuclear power has waste issues, coal is associated with greenhouse gases and other emissions, wind and sun are inconsistent, hydropower is tapped out, natural gas costs and supplies are volatile, and conservation, no matter how hard we try, won’t close the gap.

Xcel deserves immense credit for its leadership in pursuing clean coal technologies, but its decision exemplifies the stark economic reality of pursuing leapfrog science to solve today’s energy problems.

Converting coal to gas, burning the gas, and capturing and burying the carbon dioxide it creates is the holy grail of clean coal—and we should vigorously pursue it. But as Xcel quickly learned, the costs and uncertainties are barriers to progress. The U.S. government’s “Future Gen” project that will use the same technology is already significantly over budget and won’t begin operation until at least 2012.

Even then, as John Litynski at the Energy Department’s National Energy Laboratory says, it will be another 15 years to develop commercially viable greenhouse gas capture and storage systems, and “market penetration,” he says, might not happen until 2045.

To make a dent in carbon dioxide emissions, utilities would have to capture and pipe at least 1 billion tons of CO2 to underground storage sites each year, twice the capacity of our current natural gas pipeline system, according to Litynski.

Governor Bill Ritter’s goal of making Colorado a center for new and alternative energy technologies could not have come at a better time because, sadly, the debates over our energy and environmental challenges need new thinking. Our country needs a pragmatic effort to construct a workable, achievable national strategy that balances energy supply and demand, environmental protection, and economic stability. 

Statesmanship on energy policy must return to Washington and our state capitols.  It is imperative that we, through our elected officials, come to the table with a realistic understanding of today’s energy realities and a shared commitment to finding appropriate solutions.

That begins with defining a shared goal of meeting our nation’s growing energy demands in ways that ensure continued economic growth and afford greater environmental protection. Achieving this balance will not come without costs, but it is more achievable than some would lead you to believe.  What will be required is a heightened political will and a backdrop of bipartisan support to take action and make these dual goals a national imperative.

Any comprehensive solution will require an integrated national approach that includes conservation, support for alternative and renewable energies, new technologies and better use of traditional energy sources. A hearty dose of realism is needed about what bridging technologies can help us through the near term while we wait for leapfrog technologies that are decades away.

Here is one decisive piece of realism: Coal supplies more than 50 percent of U.S. electricity and over 80 percent of Colorado’s electricity. Due to its abundance and price stability coal will, and must, continue to be a major source in meeting U.S. and world electricity demand for decades to come.  While proponents of alternative energy are often adamant in their rejection of coal as a continued long-term energy resource, reality dictates otherwise.  To dismiss this reality is simply dangerous – dangerous to long-term energy supply and price stability.

Understanding this reality, it is incumbent on us to make coal as clean as possible as soon as possible – and we can. Progress is being made, whether it is near-term solutions, such as refined coal and other pre-combustion technologies, or long-lead solutions such as the government’s “FutureGen” program.

Although “FutureGen” clean coal technology holds great promise, more immediate and lesser-known processes such as refined coal can offer greater energy, environmental and economic benefits for utilities and industrial customers as a bridge to future technologies.

Today, we can make coal cleaner before it is burned, and Colorado is home to at least one company, Evergreen Energy, on the leading edge of this pre-combustion approach to the traditional coal-fuel cycle.

Add such present-day improvements with conservation, alternative, renewable and traditional energy resource innovations, and we can begin to address the profound challenges before us.  There is no single cure for our energy and environmental symptoms.  Yet there are specific actions that we can take today to place us on the appropriate path to affordable energy security and a better environmental quality of life. With the energy technology companies already here, Colorado can help chart that course for the nation and perhaps the world.

 

Kevin R. Collins is president and CEO of Evergreen Energy Inc., a Denver-based refined coal producer.