DEVELOPING COMMERCIAL-SCALE CCS PROJECTS: AN OVERVIEW OF THE TAYLORVILLE ENERGY CENTER IN ILLINOIS

After decades of decline for the Illinois coal industry, new coal-fed power plant technologies promise to help Illinois responsibly tap its vast reserves, grow the central and southern Illinois economy, provide significant reductions in greenhouse gases, and hold energy prices down. The Taylorville Energy Center (TEC) is a cutting-edge proposed 730-megawatt (gross) coal-fed power plant with Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) to make it among the most environmentally responsible power plants in the world. It is one of the first such facilities in the nation.

Located a mile northeast of Taylorville in central Illinois, the plant will convert Illinois coal into clean substitute natural gas (also known as methane) to generate enough electricity to power more than 500,000 homes. Excess methane will be sold into the natural gas marketplace. In the process, the plant will capture at least 50 percent of carbon dioxide (CO₂) that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. The captured CO₂ will be transported via pipeline for use in enhanced oil recovery or storage in a saline geologic reservoir in the Mt. Simon Sandstone, a geologic formation beneath Illinois. The Mt. Simon Sandstone has been safely used for natural gas storage for more than 50 years.

To encourage development of environmentally advanced plants, the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate Bill 1987 (SB 1987), the Clean Coal Portfolio Standard Act. SB 1987 requires large utilities to enter into long-term, cost-based contracts to purchase up to 5 percent of their electricity from clean coal facilities that capture at least 50 percent of their greenhouse gas emissions.

Taylorville Energy Center is being developed by Christian County Generation, L.L.C., a joint venture between affiliates of Tenaska, an Omaha, Nebraska-based power development company, and MDL Holding Co. of Louisville, Kentucky.