Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
4/25/2014
Southern Company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese state-owned mining and energy company Shenhua Group to share research relative to technologies being used at its Kemper County Energy Facility in Mississippi. Kemper has been touted as a beacon in the clean coal community due, in large part, to its use of carbon capture and storage to capture 65 percent of total emissions. “This technology enables companies to generate electricity from an affordable and abundant resource with resulting carbon emission better than a similarly sized natural gas plant,” said Southern Company spokesman Tim Leljedal. “We see this as part of the full portfolio of energy resources, which we believe should not only include 21st century coal, but nuclear, natural gas, renewables and energy efficiency.”
China has large reserves of lignite coal, as does the area surrounding the Kemper facility, making Kemper a powerful learning tool for the future of energy production in China. “When you look on a global scale, about half of the world’s coal reserves consist of low rank coal, which is the kind that [our] technology is designed to utilize. We look at areas around the world were we expect to see increases in generation in the years and decades to come. China, India and other parts of Asia are expected to add more than 400,000 MW of new coal based generation by 2035. We see opportunities for this technology to be leveraged to help meet the world’s energy needs. In working with Shenhua, this is an opportunity for two companies that are recognized for energy innovation to examine possibilities around advancing the commercial deployment of 21st century coal technologies,” said Leljedal of the agreement.
