Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
10/16/2015
Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Dry Fork Station near Gillette, Wyo., will be the site of the state’s carbon utilization Integrated Test Center (ITC), Gov. Matt Mead announced late last week. “We lead the nation in coal production. This facility allows us to provide the same leadership in research and to do all we can to make sure the coal industry can continue to serve Wyoming and the country for many years to come,” Mead said in a press release.
Mead has been pushing for the development of the ITC for several years and secured $15 million in state funds through legislative approval in mid-2014. The Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association have pledged an additional $6 million to complete the necessary funding for the project.
The Basin Electric Dry Fork facility is a 4-year-old, 385 net megawatt coal-fired plant. “We’re excited to be part of this project,” said Paul Sukut, Basin Electric CEO and general manager, in the release. “When we built Dry Fork Station, we built it with the hope and intention of one day having the opportunity to test and potentially help advance coal technologies."
A construction date for the ITC has not been set, but the center has already secured its first research teams. “I’m thrilled to announce as well that XPRIZE Foundation will be the first tenants in the ITC. Their recent announcement of the $20 million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE is intended to foster a global competition and innovation in carbon technology,” Mead said.
NRG Energy and Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) teamed up with nonprofit public competition organization XPRIZE to launch a $20 million carbon utilization innovation competition in late September. The NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, which is open to the public, consists of two competition tracks, one that will test developmental technologies on emissions from a coal-fired power plant and one that will use emissions from a natural gas-fired power plant.
Up to five selected teams from the coal-fired track will move into the ITC in the third round of the competition, during which teams will demonstrate technologies under real-world conditions. Operation and testing in this round of the competition are slated to begin in March 2019, giving the state of Wyoming and Basin Electric 3.5 years to complete construction.
After the XPRIZE researchers are done at the test center, it will be opened to other teams researching novel uses of captured CO2.
