CCS Project Database
Company/Alliance: Summit Power Group Inc, Siemens, Fluor, Linde, R.W. Beck, Blue Source and Texas Bureau of Economic Geology
Location: Penwell, Ector County, Texas, USA
Feedstock: Coal
Size: 400 MW Gross, 245 MW Commercial output ( 2 Mt/yr captured) New Build
Capture Technology: Pre-Combustion: Siemens IGCC technology and Linde Rectisol acid-gas capture technology (90% CO2 capture)
CO2 Fate: EOR in the Permian Basin
Start: Start (2019)
Motivation/Economics:
In May 2016, the DOE withdrew funding from TCEP essentially canceling the project- see below
Total project cost is estimated to be $3.98 billion. (Original estimate was $1.98 billion).
Total DOE awards are $811 million.
DOE Grants:
- 2010: $450 million from DOE Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) $116 million of this was lost in September 2015 when TCEP failed to commit stimulus funds.
- 2015: $477 million in Investment Tax Credits from the IRS bringing the project total to $811 million.
On September 27, 2011, the DOE issued a Record of Decision that - along with a signed cooperative agreement - will allow federal funding to be used to help build TCEP.
Comments:
May 2016: The DOE has refused to extend any more money to the TCEP project after TCEP project developers asked for an additional $11 million advance from its federally allocated money. The DOE has explained the refusal of the funds as they have doubts that the project will actually take place. The project was supposed to have been completed in 2014 and it has yet to start construction. Already $167 million of the remaining $334 CCPI fund has been allocated to TCEP.
The DOE has also asked Congress in its budget request for the fiscal year 2017, to strip the $240 million pledged to the project from the agency's Clean Coal Initiative and use it for other research and development efforts instead. Summit Power, TCEP's developers, have said that this move will basically kill the project. Private investment is only $45 million in the development phase.
December 2015: Summit signed the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Corp. (HQC) and SNC-Lavalin. The contract covers engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, and performance testing of the chemical and carbon capture block for the project, which will be integrated with a Siemens combined cycle power block.
On June 20, 2011, TCEP entered into a 25-year power purchase agreement with CPS Energy of San Antonio, Texas, to buy 200 MW of power from the TCEP Project. Summit and Blue Strategies LLC announced that Whiting Petroleum Corporation had signed a 15-year contract for the purchase of CO2. Whiting will be the largest customer purchasing 60 percent of the CO2 for the next 15 years. Summit has also secured a long-term contract for an unnamed company to purchase the 750,000 tons urea or fertilizer the plant will be capable of producing annually. TCEP will also be producing 930k tons/year of urea for fertilizer.
The TCEP Project is to be located at one of the former FutureGen finalist sites – the 600-acre Penwell site – situated fifteen miles west of Odessa, Texas. The project will sell the estimated 3 million tons captured annually for EOR in the surrounding Permian Basin. In addition to the CO2 the project will also produce other valuable commercial products, including urea (for fertilizer), argon gas, sulfuric acid, and an inert non-leachable slag suited to cement making, road building, and roofing materials. There are nearby natural gas pipelines for start-up, backup and maintenance fuel.
The IGCC facility will deploy Siemens commercial gasification and power block technologies, including Siemens combustion and steam turbine-generator sets. The facility will use water-gas shift and Rectisol® CO2 scrubber technology to capture about 90% of the CO2 produced from the 400 MW (gross) facility. In addition to the CO2, TCEP will capture 99% of sulfur dioxide, 90% of nitrogen oxide, and 99% of mercury.
Texas Legislature in 2009 enacted H.B. 469 to help incentivize TCEP and similar projects. TCEP and other projects with 70% or greater CO2 capture can qualify for more than $100 million in Texas tax relief, and oil produced using CO2 from TCEP and other projects enjoys additional tax advantages. TCEP received its final air quality permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on December 28, 2010.
Project Link: Texas Clean Energy Project
Other Sources and Press Releases:
Summit Power's website
Energy Department Suspends Funding for Texas Carbon Capture Project, Igniting Debate (May 2016)
Taxpayer cash at risk in delayed Texas project -- DOE audit (May 2016)
Stalled carbon capture coal project in Texas begins to move forward (December 2015)
Summit Power signs EPC contract for Texas Clean Energy Project (December 2015)
USA: Summit says final contracts imminent, only raising private investment remains before clean coal plant a go (June 2015)
DOE issues analysis of revamped Texas Clean Energy coal gasification project (May 2015)
Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Research, Development, and Demonstration at the U.S. Department of Energy (June 2013)
Summit’s Texas Clean Energy Project Reaches Major Milestone with Signed EPC and O&M Contracts (February 2012)
Utility to Purchase Electricity from Innovative DOE-Supported Clean Coal Project (January 2012)
Innovative Texas Clean Coal Project Takes Major Step Forward as DOE Issues Record of Decision (September 2011)
Clean coal project in Texas wins $450M in federal help (September 2011)
Texas Clean Energy Project to Sell CO2 to Whiting Petroleum Corporation (July 2011)
DOE-sponsored IGCC Project in Texas takes important step forward (June 2011)
DOE team to visit TCEP site (April 2010)
Summit Power and Blue source announce agrement on management (October 2009)
