NPPD’s Gerald Gentleman Station near Sutherland, Nebraska was one of seven projects recently selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy receive funding for cost-shared research and development. The project being funded is for a design and cost estimate for a retrofitted, 300-megawatt equivalent, commercial scale CO2 capture facility. DOE announced funding for the project to ION Engineering of Boulder, Col., for the project.
Funding awarded to ION on this project amounted to $2,797,961, which is part of $44 million in federal funding being awarded for various cost-shared research and development projects. Projects selected are expected to advance competitive operation of the country’s fossil-based power generation infrastructure by reducing energy consumption and capital costs associated with next-generation carbon capture systems.
“We continue to be interested in this project and support it because our coal-fired generating resources bring significant value to our customers,” said NPPD Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Kent. “It is important we find technologies that can reduce CO2 emissions in a cost-effective manner.”
NPPD will contribute $250,000 of in-kind support through internal labor and expenses, and $50,000 in cash contributions from the District’s Domestic Energy Initiative Fund.
The project’s outcome will include completion of sufficient design engineering to develop a budgetary cost estimate for the capture of CO2 emissions from Gentleman Unit 2. It will also provide best available cost information to inform NPPD’s generation resource planning process.
The project is expected to begin in April and is expected to last approximately 18 months, with final results known by the fourth quarter of 2019.