The U.S. Department of Energy intends to fund competitive research and development efforts in fiscal year 2019 to develop the coal-fired power plants of the future.
The effort is known as Coal FIRST (Flexible, Innovative, Resilient, Small, Transformative), Kallanish Energy reports.
The R&D will underpin coal-fired power plants capable of flexible operations to meet the needs of the grid, using components that improve efficiencies and reduce emissions, provide resilient power, are small compared to today’s utility-scale coal-fired plants. The research will transform how coal technologies are designed and manufactured.
The initiative is expected to make coal-fired power plants of the future more adaptive to the modern electrical grid, according to DOE. Up to three R&D projects may be funded, said DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy.
A request for proposals is likely to be issued in November 2018. That effort could result in the construction of a coal-based pilot-scale power plant in the future.
The plan is part of the Trump administration’s strong support for coal, although no one is building coal-fired power plants at the moment, due largely to be the added emissions costs associated with burning coal.
