EPA’s New Source Performance Standards for new power plants finalized a standard based on highly efficient supercritical pulverized coal with partial carbon capture and storage (CCS), a change from the proposed standard based on integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) with partial CCS. In early March, the Hydrogen Energy California Project—one of the IGCC units with CCS that EPA discussed in the proposal—announced its cancellation. The developer withdrew the application for certification for the Kern County project (initially filed July 31, 2008) from the California Energy Commission on March 3.
In its withdrawal, the company stated that CCS “will play a key role in international, national and state efforts to curb carbon emissions, and California will continue to lead the way in advancing CCS.” Although the company believes that the site is “well suited to carbon sequestration,” obstacles such as delays and the Supreme Court’s stay of the Clean Power Plan “have cast additional uncertainty over the timing of such projects.” The California Energy Commission terminated the proceeding the same day.
Other IGCC with partial CCS projects include the 400 MW Texas Clean Energy Project (projected start date in 2019) and the 582 MW Kemper County project (projected start date in late 2016).
