AEP's carbon sequestration project unveiled amid fanfare
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AEP's Mountaineer Power Plant in Mason County is the site of the world's first project to capture and store carbon emissions from a coal-fired power plant. |
By Erica Peterson and Keri Brown
October 30, 2009 ·
The world’s first project to capture and store greenhouse gases at a coal-fired power plant was unveiled Friday in New Haven. But doubts remain over its practicality.
Several hundred politicians, power company officials and reporters gathered Mountaineer Power Plant for the project’s official debut.
Other projects have either captured or sequestered carbon dioxide, but this is the first coal-fired power plant to do both.
The pilot project will bury 1.5 percent of the plant’s emissions more than one mile underground.
Environmentalists question whether the carbon will remain trapped underground, and whether it will be economically viable on a large scale.
American Electric Power CEO Mike Morris says it will.
“Eventually, retrofitting the fleet across the United States and throughout the world will be extremely cost effective, because I think we will be up against other options,” Morris said.
Morris says even with the added cost of carbon sequestration, the low cost of coal makes the technology competitive with natural gas, solar and wind power.