The U.S. Department of Energy gave the green light this week to FutureGen, a prototype for a new type of coal power plant that will produce electricity with almost no gas emissions.

On Tuesday the DOE signed an agreement with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, an international consortium created to oversee the construction of the plant. The project will cost nearly $1 billion to complete and will be finished by 2012, the DOE said.

In three to four months, the DOE will begin taking bids by locations wanting to house the plant.

Texas plans to aggressively pursue the bid. The state Legislature allotted $2 million to fund a team of researchers at UT who are working on a bid proposal.

Scott Tinker, director of the University's FutureGen project, said Texas is the best candidate to house the prototype because of its geology. Texas has large coal deposits, oil fields and places to store sequestered carbon dioxide. In addition, the state has a thriving oil industry with the necessary infrastructure, Tinker said.

The prototype plant will be sized to generate approximately 275 megawatts of electricity, enough to power roughly 275,000 households. It will serve as a testing ground for innovations.

The plant will employ techniques that will allow it to convert pollutants into usable products, such as fertilizers and soil enhancers. FutureGen technologies can also turn coal into highly enriched hydrogen gas, which can be burned more cleanly than the coal itself.

Another feature of the prototype is the use of carbon sequestration, which captures carbon dioxide emissions and stores them underground.

Sequestered carbon dioxide can be used to recover oil deposits embedded in rocks at former drilling sites. This process, known as oil recovery, has been used in Texas for decades.

DOE spokesman Mike Waldron said FutureGen is only a part of a larger plan to use the country's existing resources while developing environmentally sound, sustainable forms of renewable energy.

While the U.S. has spent $6 billion on developing renewable forms of energy like wind and solar power, there is still a need to utilize the country's massive coal reserves, the largest in the world, Waldron said.

Environmental groups commend the DOE for trying to develop clean-burning coal, but they say developing renewable energy should be the first priority.

"Some big questions need to be answered about carbon sequestration, and this is a step forward," said Dave Hamilton, energy director for the Sierra Club. "Until then, why don't we do what is quicker, cleaner, cheaper and smarter, which is sustainable, renewable energy?"

Tinker will officially announce the project's request for proposals at the Doubletree Hotel today at 11:30 a.m.

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