CIAB Market & Policy developments 2005/06 - IEA

4.2 Investment in Coal Supply, Transportation and Use
United States of America
283. According to a May 2007 report of the Department of Energy’s National Energy
Technology Laboratory (NETL), there is 46GW of proposed new coal fired power plant in
the permitting or construction stage. Plants representing at least another 50GW of
capacity have been announced but have not yet begun the permitting process. Most of
these plants will come on line after 2010. The NETL report represents an indication of a
high level of new interest in coal fired plants in the US, but it should be noted that a
number of these announced units may not come on line as scheduled or may be
dropped from generators’ future plans altogether. The states with the greatest number of
announced plants as reported by NETL are Illinois (16) and Wyoming (11). Although all
of these plants will use advanced coal combustion technologies, several companies
(including American Electric Power, Xcel, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, and
Cinergy/Duke) have announced plans to construct commercial scale IGCC plants.
284. AEP has estimated that the cost of constructing its 629MW IGCC units will be high
($2.23 Billion), resulting in a cost of generated electricity that would be twenty to thirty
percent greater than that from pulverized coal (PC) combustion technology. However, as
more units are built, the costs of construction are expected to come into line with the cost
of PC units. AEP is in the process of permitting and designing its two IGCC units and
construction will start once traditional rate recovery is approved. The units will
incorporate the space and layout for the addition of components for future capture of CO 2
for sequestration. AEP is also building two state-of-the-art ultra-supercritical power units
in Oklahoma (950MW @ $1.8 billion) and Arkansas (600MW @ $1.3 billion).
Canada
285. Western Canadian Coal Corp’s (WCC) Brule Mine in north eastern British Columbia
(B.C.) received regulatory approval in July 2007 and construction is under way. It is
designed to produce 2 million tonnes/year of PCI coal for export.
286. There are several coal projects currently awaiting environmental assessment approval
from the B.C. government:
• Dehua International Mines Group Inc. applied for an environmental assessment for
its Gething coal mine project in November 2006. The company proposes to
construct an underground mine and a coal preparation plant in north eastern B.C.,
projected to produce 2 million tonnes/year of coking coal with a mine life of 40
years.
• In July 2006 WCC applied for an environmental assessment for its Hermann mine
project, located in Tumbler Ridge adjacent to the company’s Wolverine mine, north
eastern B.C. WCC is applying for a certificate to allow the production of 0.8-1.1
million tonnes/year of coking coal with a mine life expectancy of 10 years.
• Cline Mining submitted an application for environmental assessment for its
Lodgepole mine project in the Crowsnest Coalfield of south eastern B.C. in
January 2006. The company is planning to produce 2 million tonnes/year of coking
coal for export.
• The application for an environmental assessment for the Horizon mine project was
originally submitted by Hillsborough Resources Limited in September 2005. The
project is now managed by Peace River, a new partnership between Hillsborough
(60%), Anglo Coal Canada (20%) and Northern Energy and Mining Inc. (20%). 1.6
million tonnes/year of coking coal production is planned.
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