Trailblazer Energy Center
Project Journal
FEBRUARY ENTRIES
Tenaska Trailblazer Energy Center Announced
February 19, 2008
Tenaska officially announced that it is evaluating a site near Sweetwater, Texas, to build the technologically advanced Trailblazer Energy Center. View the media release here.
More than 65 Nolan County residents, elected officials and business leaders attended the announcement at Texas State Technical College West Texas. State Representative Susan King, Sweetwater Enterprise for Economic Development Director Ken Becker, and County Judge Tim Fambrough spoke at the event, along with Tenaska business developers Helen Manroe, Bill Braudt, Dave Fiorelli and Greg Kunkel. Photos of the event are posted here.
The coal-fueled power generating facility will be the first new commercial coal-fueled power plant to capture up to 85 to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that would otherwise be emitted. CO2 is considered by many a greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change.
After the CO2 is captured, it will be transported via pipeline to oil fields in the Permian Basin where it will be used in enhanced oil recovery and stored in the Basin’s geologic formations. The volume of CO2 expected to be sold to oil producers could be used to recover enough oil to add more than $1 billion a year of oil production to the Texas economy.
Construction, anticipated to begin in 2009, will take about five years and cost more than $2 billion; financing and other expenses will bring the total cost to $3 billion—or more. Up to 1,500 to 2,000 workers will be hired during peak construction periods. The Trailblazer Energy Center will employ approximately 100 people in well-paying, permanent jobs when in operation.
The approximately 600-megawatt (MW) plant would provide enough electricity to power about 600,000 homes. See graphic here.
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More information about the Tenaska Trailblazer Energy Center and illustrations for press use may be obtained at www.tenaskatrailblazer.com.
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