Powerfuel gets go-ahead for Hatfield IGCC

15 February 2009


Development of the world’s first large-scale integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant has moved a step closer to reality after the UK government gave the project its consent.

Approval of the 900 MW project at Hatfield Colliery in northern England means that construction of the plant will start in June 2009, according to Powerfuel, the company behind the project.

The Hatfield project will be built in two stages and is scheduled for completion in 2014. It will be the first plant in the world to be equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

The UK government has given Powerfuel consent for the first phase of the project and has granted consent for the second phase on the condition that the company can prove that carbon captured from the plant can be stored safely. The entire project is expected to cost around £1.9 billion.

Consent for the Hatfield project was granted alongside approvals for two other major power plant projects in the UK – a 2000 MW project in South Wales and a 1020 MW plant in eastern England.

“It is essential to replace older polluting power stations that are reaching the end of their lives with new stations that operate more efficiently. We welcome the investment from energy companies to do this,” said Energy and Climate Change Minister Mike O’Brien. “These power stations will generate energy for four million homes for decades to come.”

Phase 1 of the Hatfield project will involve the construction of an 800 MW gas-fired combined cycle power plant that has been designed and optimised for syngas conversion and operation. In the second phase, Powerfuel will convert the plant into a 900 MW IGCC facility fuelled by coal from the Hatfield Colliery.

The combined cycle power island will be equipped with GE gas turbines and will be completed at the beginning of 2012, when an agreed grid connection for the export of electricity will be available. The second phase of the project will use Shell’s gasification technology and will enable 90 per cent of the plant’s carbon emissions to be captured.

Jacobs Engineering is carrying out the front end engineering and design for the project.

RWE npower, the UK subsidiary of the German utility, says that it will soon start work on the construction of its £1 billion, 2000 MW combined cycle power plant at Pembroke in South Wales.

Centrica is developing a 1020 MW combined cycle plant at King’s Lynn, Norfolk.




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