Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that plans for new coal-fired power plants are “falling by the wayside as states conclude that conventional coal plants are too dirty to build and the cost of cleaner plants is too high.” Evergreen’s refined coal offers an almost immediately available solution to many of the issues raised in the Journal story.

As the country swelters this summer, the Journal writes that if “significant numbers of new coal plants don’t get built in the US . . .it will put pressure on officials to clear the path for other power sources” The story reports the power industry is looking at more nuclear plants, “but those plants are several years away. . .other sources, like wind, don’t provide around-the-clock energy, while solar is relatively expensive and isn’t yet capable of producing large amounts of electricity.” Gas, the story points out, is an alternative, but production is flat and other industries are turning to it for fuel.

The story also notes the significant uncertainties about the costs of future generation coal technologies and the carbon capture and sequestration technologies that must accompany them. It notes that in Minnesota a hearing judge is urging the Public Utilities Commission to reject plans by the local utility to buy electricity from a coal gasification power plant. That’s because the plant “wouldn’t be a good deal for consumers”—costing “an extra $472 million in 2011 dollars, to make the plant capable of capturing about 30%of its carbon dioxide emissions and another $634 million to construct a pipeline to move the greenhouse gas to the nearest deep geological storage in Alberta, Canada.”

Refined Coal – A Practical Solution Available Today

This story has a strong ring of familiarity.  It’s what we’ve been saying here at Evergreen for some time.  Quite simply, the country needs more power.  Conservation, alternative energy, nuclear and “future generation” coal technologies are all important, but they won’t fill the gap.  Indeed, future generation coal technologies are years away from wide-scale deployment and their costs, as can see in Minnesota, create issues.

The U.S. relies on coal for half its electricity today and will continue to do so in the coming decades. If we’re going to use coal, we should make it as clean as possible, as soon as possible. That’s what we’re striving to do at Evergreen. Our pre-combustion process makes coal cleaner before it is burned. We maximize the value of cheap, plentiful, low-rank US and international coals. We can meet the specific needs of industrial, utility and international customers with a patented process that refines and enriches coal – boosting efficiency and lowering emissions.

It’s important to remember as well that while plans for new coal plants are questionable in some markets, there are still hundreds of existing coal plants seeking ways to improve their efficiency and environmental performance. Those plants are a key target market for Evergreen, along with the growing number of coal plants in Asia that plan to use lower-rank coals as their fuel source.