Pennsylvania to build $800M waste-coal plant

Washington (Platts)--27Jun2005

An $800-mil waste-coal power plant will be built south of Pittsburgh. On
Monday, state Dept. of Environmental Protection's Southwest Director Ken
Bowman approved an air plan for Wellington Development LLC that paves the way
for the Green Energy Resource Recovery Project.

The 525-MW power plant to be built at LTV Steel's old Nemacolin mine site
along the Monongahela River in Cumberland Township will use more than 3.1-mil
tons of waste coal annually from the Nemacolin, Isabella, Daisytown and
Hawkins coal refuse piles located in Washington, Fayette and Greene counties. 

The state has estimated it has 8,000 acres of land containing abandoned waste
coal. The sites contain 248-mil tons of waste coal, an amount DEP estimates
will take 350 years to reclaim. The Nemacolin plant will have the capacity to
burn 20% of the state's total in 20 years of operation. The company estimates
construction will take three years.

According to DEP, the plant will use the best available control technology to
reduce sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and particulate matter
emissions. Circulating fluidized bed combustion technology will be used at the
plant, and DEP is requiring plant managers to continuously monitor mercury
emissions to ensure new source performance standards are being met. NSPS for
green energy limits mercury emissions to 22.05 lbs/year. Fairmont, W.Va.-based
Wellington submitted its air quality plan to DEP in July 2004.

Bowman announced the construction of another 300-MW waste-coal plant in April.
The $400-mil Beech Hollow Power Project will use 37-mil tons of waste coal
from the Champion Refuse Pile. The plant will produce an estimated 2.6-mil
MWh/year of electricity. 

Wellington announced plans to build the plant in January 2004.

This story was originally published in Platts Coal Trader
http://www.coaltrader.platts.com

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