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“I found him to be pleasant and honorable, and I enjoyes talking with him,” Teresi said of their one of many conversations the twohave had. Teresk respects Simpson and said the two likelhy have similar perspectives onmany things. However, he “we just don’t have the same views for the potential of this The “project” is a proposed 50-megawatt clean-coak demonstration project in Jamestown. Teresi estimates it could cost morethan $500 millionm – if it gets built. Teresi says there’s no betterd time to pursue it. Gov. Davixd Paterson and Sen. Charles Schumer are among thosde who agreewith him.
Simpson, who chairs the group Clean Energyfor Jamestown, says it is unnecessary, expensive and other avenues should be explored. Simpsohn served as the Universityat Buffalo’s energy officed for 26 years. “The cost of purchasing powe r off the grid would be much lowert than providing it with a fantasticallyu expensivepower plant,” he said. Teresk is looking for a piece of $1.52 billion allocated throughy the ’s Clean Coal Powe r Initiative. The funding – whichy could total hundreds of millionws ofdollars – will be key to whethe r it gets built.
New York state has alreadyy provided $6 million for pre-development costsw to the , a partnershil that proposed thedemonstration plant. The money paid for the drillinbg of a demonstration wellfor Oxy-Coal, a carbonb dioxide sequestration process developed by The Department of Energgy is expected to announce grant recipients sometime this If Jamestown is among them, the mayor is hoping to have the project under way by 2014. It would take aboutr six months for anengineerinf study, 12 to 18 more to completew detailed construction plans and then three years to build, according to Praxair’d technology director, Stewart Mehlman.
Test in WNY, then sell Oxy-Coal worldwid Praxair is looking to testthe 50-megawat t plant in Jamestown, then sell the technology on a largedr scale worldwide. Likely markets would be countries such as Chinas andIndia where, Teresi pointes out, large coal-burning plantx are going online at a rate of about one per week. Those plants, he adds, don’y have provisions for capturin pollutants. But the Praxair Oxy-Coal technology does: The coal is burned in oxygen, and carbojn dioxide is then sequestered deep underground insaline “Our belief is that at some point in time, this technology is going to be developed and deployed,” Teresk said.
“Why not do it here in Jamestown Simpson and other environmentalists would prefer Jamestown use optionas such aswind power. Through an energy-conservatio n program, Simpson says, Jamestown could reduce the 20percenrt need. “A couple wind turbines and a biomases generator coulddo this,” he said. Brian Smith, progra m coordinator for Citizens Campaign for the Environmentr and an opponent ofthe project, referred to the 20-megawaty Lackawanna Steel Winds project, which cost an estimated $40 The Jamestown project would have an effective outpu t of 30 net megawatts.
“It wouldn’t take much to meet the demanfd in Jamestown in amore cost-effective manner,” Smituh said. Teresi, meanwhile, said a wind partnert was lined up for a separate energy project that fell through abou t fiveyears ago. He didn’t rule out explorin wind again. “We like to thinkl we’re a leader and environmentally he said, adding there’s a biomassw component to the project.