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No real answers

By Adam Testa, The Southern

Thursday, March 27, 2008 10:48 PM CDT

CARBONDALE - Plans to build a coal gasification plant on the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus have come to a halt, but officials say they'll continue pursuing new options for electricity generation.

SIU President Glenn Poshard, Coal Research Center director John Mead, Physical Plant director Phil Gatton and Bill Hoback, director of the state Office of Coal Development, announced the results of a pre-feasibility study they say "brings up more questions than answers at this point" during a press conference Thursday.

"We do not feel it is prudent to move forward with a campus site or to move forward unilaterally," Poshard said. "We have always seen multiple users of the power and looking at this pre-feasibility study, we need to be thinking of teaming with other partners in the development itself."

When the project first began, a consortium of five public Illinois universities was formed to research ways for the schools to fight rising electric costs together, Poshard said. Southern Illinois seemed to be the best location for a power plant because of its proximity to coal mines and SIUC's extensive research into the technology that would be used.

Original plans called for a 150 to 200-megawatt facility, but the contractors who completed the study indicated larger plants, while more costly, are also more economical in terms of cost per megawatt, Mead said.

The consultants suggested a 1,200-megawatt facility, which is more industrial size, Gatton said. SIUC's electric usage peaks around 22 megawatts, while all five universities in the consortium together peak around 75.

Three sites originally talked about for the project - the McLafferty Annex, the Southern Hills area and the Carterville campus, where most of the coal research happens - have been dismissed as viable options, but Mead said there are plans to continue exploring new technologies and new locations.

Rising energy costs continue to take their toll on SIUC's campus, Gatton and Poshard said. Gatton expects energy rates to increase another 20 percent in 2009, while Poshard said a portion of a student fee designed to pay for building renovations is instead being used to fund utilities.

For these reasons and others, university and state officials maintain the position they will continue to pursue new technologies and opportunities and keep SIUC at the forefront of these innovations.

"It doesn't mean we're going to stop," Gatton said. "I think it's important we don't give up and continue to be proactive."

adam.testa@thesouthern.com

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