Pleasant Prairie Power Plant captures nearly 90 percent of CO2 emissions

The Business Journal of Milwaukee reported last week that We Energies’ carbon capture project has been successful in cutting almost 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from their coal-generated power plant in Pleasant Prairie, Wis.

The plant has actually been doing this for months. We know this because earlier this year, our team viewed its project during the America’s Power Factuality Tour and got to see carbon capture in action for ourselves.

We learned that the pilot facility takes about 1 percent of its flue gas for use in the demonstration project. Then, a chilled ammonia process is used to capture carbon dioxide emissions from the gas.

We congratulate We Energies and the Electric Power Research Institute for their dedicated work on carbon capture.

Not only does this initiative confirm the industry’s commitment to making fuel from coal increasingly clean, it proves that clean coal technology can drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions, mitigating the effects of climate change.

This project is one step closer to making carbon capture feasible on a commercial scale – and right now, that’s a reassuring thought. USA Today reports that nine states are said to be falling short on their goals to increase the use of renewable energy.

This just goes to show how important it for us to keep working on coal – it’s a reliable base fuel that is abundant and affordable.