U.S., U.K To Fund Canadian Clean-Coal Research

CALGARY -- British and U.S. research organizations have joined the effort to develop and build the first clean coal power plant in the country, the Canadian Clean Power Coalition said Wednesday.

The coalition's long-term goal is to develop and commercialize new technology that will virtually eliminate air emissions, including carbon dioxide - one of the so-called greenhouse gases that the Kyoto protocol seeks to reduce.

The California-based Electric Power Research Institute and the International Energy Agency will each contribute $238,000 over three years as full participants in a feasibility study being conducted for the project.

The Canadian coalition expects to select the technology for the "clean coal" plant by next year, retrofit a power plant and operate it as a full-scale demonstration facility.

A new prototype plant using the technology is expected to be built and operating by 2010. The coalition is backed by seven companies - Atco Power, Epcor, Luscar, Nova Scotia Power, Ontario Power Generation, SaskPower and TransAlta - that account for 90 per cent of Canada's coal-fuelled electricity production.

The coalition also gets funding from the Alberta Energy Research Institute and the Alberta, Saskatchewan and federal governments.

Although coal is a cheap and plentiful fuel, it also produces high emission levels, compared with other fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas.

Source: Canadian Press