Next generation in power plants
AKRON, OHIO - The proposed FutureGen power plant is a step beyond the next generation of coal-burning power plants just starting to operate in the United States.
The United States has only two integrated gasification-combine cycle (IGCC) power plants - the next generation of plants. One is in Florida; the other is in Indiana.
More are on the drawing boards. The IGCC plants turn coal to a gas and remove sulfur, nitrogen and mercury that cause pollution.
American Electric Power in Columbus is considering building IGCC power plants in Meigs County in southern Ohio and Mason County in northern West Virginia.
The Ohio plant would produce about 600 megawatts of electricity and cost $1.3 billion; the West Virginia plant would have a comparable size and price, spokesman Pat Hemlepp said.
The company is seeking approvals from the two states, he said. One of those plants could be at a site in Kentucky, he added.
The two plants together would produce enough electricity to power nearly 1.2 million houses.
Related News
Scientists generate 'electricity from thin air.' Humidity could be a boundless source of energy.
WASHINGTON - Sure, we all complain about the humidity on a sweltering summer day. But it turns out that same humidity could be a source of clean, pollution-free energy, a new study shows.
"Air humidity is a vast, sustainable reservoir of energy that, unlike solar and wind, is continuously available," said the study, which was published recently in the journal Advanced Materials.
“This is very exciting,” said Xiaomeng Liu, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and the paper’s lead author. “We are opening up a wide door for harvesting clean electricity from thin air.”
In fact, researchers say, nearly any material…
