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Project Will Burn Ammonia with Coal to Cut Emissions

May 24, 2021

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Japan’s largest power generation company plans to begin using ammonia as a fuel at one of its coal-fired plants as part of an effort to reduce the facility’s emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

JERA Co., a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings (TEPCO) and Chubu Electric Power, and IHI Corp., a Japanese engineering company, on May 24 said the four-year test project will begin in June and run to March 2025. The companies said it will be the world’s first major project to develop technology to enable co-firing a significant amount of ammonia at a large-scale commercial coal-fired plant.

The demonstration is aimed toward an eventual ammonia co-firing rate of 20% at the 1-GW Unit 4 of JERA’s 4.1-GW Hekinan Thermal Power Station, beginning in fiscal year 2024. The project is designed to establish ammonia co-firing technology by co-burning coal and ammonia.…

Coal Shipments to Power Sector at Lowest Level in 14 Years

May 16, 2021

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Shipments of coal to U.S. power plants in 2020 fell 22% year-over-year, according to data released May 13 by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The agency said the U.S. power sector received 428 million short tons (MMst) of coal last year, the lowest amount since the EIA began publishing shipment data in 2007.

The EIA said the COVID-19 pandemic was partly to blame for the drop, as demand for electricity fell nationwide. The agency in April reported that U.S. energy consumption in 2020 fell 7% year-over-year, which it said “marked the largest annual decrease in U.S. energy consumption in both percentage and absolute terms in our consumption data series that dates back to 1949.”

Thursday’s report also pointed to the ongoing decline of U.S. coal-fired power generation; federal data shows about 9.5 GW of coal-fired generation was shuttered nationwide last year, the fourth-highest total since 2009.…

DOE Earmarks $109.5 Million to Support Coal Workers

April 26, 2021

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said it will provide $ 109.5 million in funding for projects that directly support job creation in communities impacted by the energy transition, particularly for workers and areas struggling due to closures of coal-fired power plants and coal mines.

The DOE in the April 23 announcement, made in connection with a White House report on economic revitalization in coal and power plant communities, said the financial support is among the “first results of a government-wide initiative launched by President Biden in the first week of his administration to boost the economic potential of coal and power plant communities.”

The White House Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, which is part of the DOE, also announced it has chosen an executive director—Brian Anderson, longtime West Virginia resident and director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)— to lead its efforts.…

More Coal Cuts—AEP, Mississippi Power Detail Closures

April 24, 2021

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American Electric Power (AEP), which in 2019 reached an agreement to close Unit 1 of the two-unit, 2.6-GW coal-fired Rockport power plant in Indiana, has now announced a plan to close Unit 2 of the facility.

Both units at Rockport are now expected to be shuttered by year-end 2028. AEP, the parent of Indiana Michigan Power, which operates the plant, on April 22 announced it would purchase Unit 2 of the plant from Wilmington Trust Co., a financial services firm. The deal was made to ensure the retirement of both units.

Thursday’s announcement came as AEP announced its first-quarter 2021 earnings, which were $ 575 million, compared to $ 495 million for the same period in 2020. AEP, like many power generating companies, is retiring older power plants and replacing that generation with renewable energy resources. AEP has said its goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% from its 2000 baseline by 2030.…

India Cites ‘Cheaper’ Coal in Planning New Units

April 20, 2021

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A draft copy of a document outlining India’s latest National Electricity Policy (NEP) reportedly shows the country is considering building new coal-fired generation capacity, even as it sets new carbon reduction targets. The document also said government officials would push for better technology to help reduce emissions from those plants.

Reuters on April 19 reported it had seen a copy of the 2021 NEP, a 28-page draft that was apparently written in February and is the first update to energy policies enacted in 2005, long before the current push for renewable energy. The news comes just days after John Kerry, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, visited India and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two discussed cooperation between the U.S. and India on addressing climate change, ahead of President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate April 22–23. Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Modi, to the virtual meeting that will be live streamed for public viewing.…