Energy-Arizona^1.4

The board of supervisors in Cochise County, Ariz., will vote this month on whether to approve zoning changes to enable the Southwest's first integrated gasification combined-cycle plant to go forward in the town of Bowie, about 100 miles east of Tucson. At a work session April 16, proponents of the 600-MW project extolled its virtues, which would include testing new ways to sequester carbon dioxide using commercial greenhouses.

Phoenix-based Southwestern Power Group notified the Arizona Corporation Commission April 4 that it will file an application for a certificate of environmental compatibility for the Bowie Power Station within 90 days and said the plant would use coal from New Mexico, Wyoming's Powder River Basin and Colorado. If all goes well, Bowie would be in operation by 2013.

The Bowie plant's site is unsuitable for underground CO₂ sequestration, so its developers have been exploring terrestrial alternatives.

"We are considering setting aside a few hundred acres on the site for an R&D park to look at how CO₂ sequestration can stimulate plant and seed growth," Ian Calkins, project spokesman, told Energy Prospects West.

SWPG is also exploring partnerships with commercial interests, notably Eurofresh Farms, the leading year-round producer and marketer of greenhouse tomatoes in the country, located in nearby Willcox, Arizona.

Dr. Gene Giacomelli, director of the University of Arizona's Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, has been working with SWPG on CO₂ sequestration possibilities.

"The only true way to sequester CO₂ on land is to have plants photosynthesize it," he said. Giacomelli thinks that "millions of seedlings" could be grown in greenhouses adjacent to the power plant and periodically transplanted into forests.

His center at the University of Arizona did a study that showed if 10 acres of greenhouses were used to grow seedlings that resulted in 20,000 acres of forest trees being planted each year, those trees could sequester half the CO₂ the Bowie plant would emit.

"That is a reasonable number of acres for this power plant, so what is needed would be the commitment over the life of the plant to grow these woody trees from seedlings," Giacomelli told Prospects.

Another way to make the Bowie project "greener," he said, is for the greenhouse-growing tomatoes on site to use heat and CO₂ from the plant. Giacomelli's center is working on ways to produce tomatoes with higher lycopenes, which may have health benefits.

"It appears the IGCC process can produce 'relatively clean' CO₂, and we can test how that works out for growing tomatoes and other crops," Giacomelli said. "My goal is to make sure we have enough electricity in Arizona. If we are going to produce 600 MW of power, let's see if we can do it better with a clean coal technology. By teaming up with a power plant, we can try to make its negatives more positive."

SWPG was denied tax credits from the U.S. Department of Energy under the Energy Policy Act, but the company plans to reapply, Calkins said.

SWPG is still lining up power purchase contracts for Bowie. And while the facility only needs a short line to tie into existing transmission owned by Tucson Electric Power, the markets for its clean coal could blossom if the proposed SunZia Southwest transmission project is built.

The SunZia Southwest project, also sponsored by SWPG, is an outgrowth of work done by the Southwest Area Transmission (SWAT) planning group. The proposed 500-kV line would run between southern New Mexico and southern Arizona and provide at least 1,200 MW of new capacity.

"SunZia will help facilitate renewable energy deliveries between the two states," said project manager Mark Etherton. "Like the Tehachapi Valley in California, the area has all this potential for renewables, but transmission is lacking. SWPG was willing to step up and see if there was interest in building this line, and now the project has taken on a life of its own."

SWPG put out a solicitation for participation in the new line in December, and according to Calkins, there are 30 interested parties. Etherton said they hope to complete negotiations for the development agreement by July 1, to be followed by an open transmission planning process.

The SunZia line would extend 300 to 400 miles, depending on the participants. Its eastern terminus would likely be the Newman substation north of El Paso. Going west, it would link up with Salt River Project's approved, but not-yet-built Pinal West-Southeast Valley 500-kV line in Pinal County southeast of Phoenix. That facility is scheduled to be operating in 2011.

Connecting to the Pinal West-Southeast Valley line would mean that Bowie's clean coal and wind energy from New Mexico could travel on up to Palo Verde and from there to California.

"I hope this line will help create a wind power superhighway," Craig Cox, director of the Interwest Energy Alliance, told Prospects.

"In most of these states, the prime potential windy land has been locked up by developers, but transmission is needed to access the market," Cox said. "Diversity of fuel sources is important -- with SunZia, we are looking at transmitting wind from eastern New Mexico, solar from the Arizona desert and geothermal from various states."

The next milestone for SunZia is to complete the development agreement. Permitting should begin in January 2008. SWPG's goal is to start construction in 2010 and have the line in service by 2012 [Susan Whittington].