A coal-fired powerplant project in Kansas that has been repeatedly left for dead because of environment-based opposition has received a renewed lease on life from approval by the state’s top environmental regulator. But the plant’s opponents are not discouraged, and they cite many obstacles the project must overcome before ground can be broken.
On May 30, the Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment (KDHE) issued the air quality permit addendum for the 895-MW Holcomb 2 powerplant proposed by Sunflower Electric Power Corp., Hays, Kan., a regional wholesale power supplier. The supercritical coal-fired plant would share the site near Holcomb, Kansas, with the existing 362-MW Holcomb 1 plant. If it is built, it will be one of the largest such plants to be constructed in the U.S. at a time when coal-fired power is losing market share to gas-turbine plants and coal plants are being retired.