NEW YORK - Future Power PA Inc said Monday it would seek funds from the U.S. Department of Energy for its proposed 270-megawatt Good Spring clean coal plant in Pennsylvania.

It would cost about $1 billion and take three years from the start of construction to finish the plant, said Nicholas Cohen, chief operating officer of Future Power. The company was seeking about $610 million in loan guarantees and/or grants from the DOE.

Good Spring would be an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant that will gasify local anthracite coal. The plant will have carbon dioxide sequestration capabilities. The town of Good Spring is about 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the state capital.

The timing on the construction of the project depends on the DOE funding, Cohen said. In a release, Future Power said it expects an evaluation and decision by the DOE in the coming months.

Future Power said it would sell electricity into the PJM (the old Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland) market and would likely sequester the CO2 in locations interconnected by pipelines. The CO2 pipelines would have to be built.

Future Power will use gasification technology expertise from China's Thermal Power Research Institute (TPRI), which is controlled by China's China Huaneng Power Group.

To date, the project's backers have invested more than $6 million to develop the plant, Cohen said. He could not say whether the project had any Chinese investors at this time.

Houston-based coal gasification developer Future Fuels LLC and Canada's Immersive Media Corp (IMC.V) own most of Future Power. Future Fuels was also developing sites in Europe and one in Kentucky, he said. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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