Peabody joins China's GreenGen

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Missouri coal company Peabody Energy Corp. said it will join China's GreenGen project.

The large, worldwide coal group said that it became the first non-Chinese equity partner in GreenGen, the first near-zero emissions coal-fueled power plant with carbon capture and storage being developed in China.

The company joined the initiative at a formal signing ceremony held at the State Guest House in Beijing.

The $1 billion GreenGen project uses advanced coal-based technologies to generate electricity for Chinese families and businesses using the country's most abundant energy resource. Peabody said the company will be capable of hydrogen production and will advance carbon dioxide capture and storage, thus offering a clean energy prototype to carbon dioxide problems.

China Huaneng Group is the majority shareholder and Peabody will own 6 percent. The group will design, develop and operate a gasification combined cycle power plant near Tianjin, southeast of Beijing. A 250-megawatt plant will be built in the initial phase, expanding to 650-megawatts in later stages. Peabody said that the construction of the plant will commence in early 2008, with the first phase of the plant to be functional by 2009.