VentureBeat

There’s one thing that most major cleantech startups — from smart meter makers to solar panel designers — have in common: they’re chomping at the bit for their promised stimulus funds. But as they wait to hear whether they make the cut next month (after an arduous application process), the Department of Energy has all but earmarked $1.1 billion — 25 percent of the full amount slated for smart grid — for a single clean coal power plant in Illinois.

Clean coal has been at the center of controversy since the green movement really started to take off several years ago. Many object even to the phrase “clean coal,” arguing that nothing can be done to actually make America’s most plentiful energy source truly clean. At the same time, coal proponents, practical-minded cleantech advocates and the like agree that coal’s inexpensiveness has secured its future for the next several decades, and we might as well do what we can to limit its toxic effects.

In that spirit, the Department of Energy says it will, in all likelihood (though the final decision won’t be handed down until early next year), approve $1.073 billion for the Illinois plant. It is the pet project of a consortium called the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, made up of 11 companies, including American Electric Power, Consol Energy and Peabody Energy, that are so confident in the government’s aid that they’ve already bought a $7 million tract of land for the facility.

It probably doesn’t hurt that president Obama hails from Illinois, as does influential Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who both expressed strong support for the development early on. Though all parties involved say that this had nothing to do with the decision.

The facility itself, known as the FutureGen project, is designed to pump out 275 megawatts of electricity (enough to power 220,000 homes) and capture 60 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted during regular coal combustion. When the plant was originally pitched to the DOE, when president Bush was still in office, that figure was 90 percent. The change has been attributed to financial and technological feasibility. Overall, the plant is expected to cost $2.4 billion. The FutureGen Alliance hopes to grow its membership to 20 so that individual contributions of $20 to $30 million could generate up to $400 to $600 million in corporate backing.

Politicians involved in the decision to grant the federal funds could get some pushback from more liberal constituencies — especially in California where solar, wind and smart-grid companies have paused operations in anticipation of government rescue. On the other side of the table, serious coal interests around the country have begrudgingly accepted the higher costs associated with more eco-conscious operations. The real winner is Illinois, which is estimated to have 96 billion tons of unmined, extractable coal.

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