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SEED board to get update on Tenaska at Monday meeting |
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Written by Staff Reports
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Monday, 14 April 2008 |
An update on the proposed Tenaska carbon-capture power plant near Sweetwater will be among the items on Monday’s reg-ular agenda for the Sweetwater Enterprise for Economic Development (SEED) board of directors.
The group, which meets at 10 a.m. at the Chamber of Com-merce building on 810 East Broadway, will hear from Helen Manroe, who is Tenaska’s general manager of business development. Tenaska announced in February that it is developing a site near Sweetwater upon which to construct a $3 billion coal-fueled electric generating station able to capture up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide would be sold for use in enhancing oil production in the Permian Basin, resulting in geologic storage. If the project is developed, the Tenaska Trailblazer Energy Center would be the first commercial carbon-capturing coal plant in the world.
An air permit application, the first formal step in gaining ap-proval to build the plant, was filed in February with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The proposed construc-tion site is a 1,919-acre tract east of Sweetwater and north of Interstate 20 in Nolan County.
The project would provide a significant boost to the local econ-omy with up to 2,000 jobs at peak construction and more than 100 permanent jobs during operation.
The final decision to proceed with the project will be made in 2009 based on a number of factors, including local, state and federal incentives; final project cost estimates, and projected market prices for electricity and carbon dioxide. Current estimates of these factors make the project appear to be econ-omically feasible.
The approximately 600-megawatt plant would provide enough electricity to power about 600,000 homes. Con-struction could begin in late 2009 and be completed in 2014.
Tenaska is a privately held energy company based in Oma-ha, Neb. that develops, con-structs, owns and operates generating plants. The company has developed four generating plants in Texas and continues to own and operate two, Ten-aska Frontier Generating Sta-tion near Shiro and Tenaska Gateway Generating State near Mt. Enterprise. A third plant, the Tenaska Kiamichi Genera-ting Station near Kiowa, Okla., also supplies electricity into Texas.
In other business on Mon-day’s agenda, the board will take the following actions:
— review and approve the minutes of the March 2008 meetings, the February 2008 financial statements and payment of accounts payable;
— review and approve a loan guarantee of $600,000 for the LMI expansion project;
— consider entering into executive session to discuss a preliminary economic development opportunity. Under law, no action will be taken and the board will then consider re-entering its regular session;
— review and approve a training grant request from TSTC-West Texas;
— review and approve the transfer of ownership of the Doscher Building from SEED to Green Urban Development;
— review and approve a resolution request for a competitive renewable energy zone (infrastructure).
— hear a marketing report from Denice Bailey;
— hear an activities report from SEED assistant marketing and administrative director Kirstin Smith;
— hear a monthly update from SEED executive director Ken Becker.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 14 April 2008 )
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