Texas IGCC Project Terminated, Ending Power Industry's Expensive Effort to Gasify Coal

SUGAR LAND--December 27, 2017--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A decade ago, when electric generators in the U.S. were paying more than $10 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) of natural gas, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) generation looked like a smart bet. But the steady decline of gas prices over the last decade undermined the economic rationale for turning the nation's inexpensive and abundant supply of coal into natural gas for use in generating electricity. More than 30 planned IGCC projects valued at $62.8 billion have been cancelled or placed on hold in recent years, according to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI™) platform. The most recent victim was the Texas Clean Energy Project, which filed for Chapter 7 dissolution in October.