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Failed Nevada Experimental Energy Plant Costs Millions
By Mr Ethanol | December 3, 2007
Arizona Daily Star:
A major Nevada utility got more than $200 million in taxpayer and ratepayer dollars for an experimental clean-coal generating plant that wouldn’t run reliably and was mothballed. Now, Sierra Pacific Power Co. wants $42 million more from its customers.
More than half of the funding targeted for the Pinon Pine gasified coal project came from the federal Department of Energy, according to Sierra Pacific documents.
An Associated Press survey of Energy Department records shows it’s a prime example of investments of public funds in failed alternative energy ventures around the nation.
Construction on the Pinon Pine project, part of the utility’s Tracy power station east of Reno, began in early 1995. The project, plagued by cost overruns, came on line in late 1996 — but as a conventional, gas-fired power plant. The experimental gasified coal system was shut down. Total costs for the entire plant ran more than $340 million.
The gasification process converts solid coal to a synthetic natural gas that can be burned as a fuel to turn electricity-generating turbines.
Topics: Energy, Industry, Negatives, News |
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