We Energies tests program to cut emissions

We Energies' coal-fired power plant in Kenosha County has been selected for a one-year test of a new technology to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants. The Pleasant Prairie power plant will be the site for a system that would use chilled ammonia to separate a small amount of carbon dioxide and prevent it from being released into the air through the plant's smokestack. The project is the first of its kind in the United States, We Energies said. We Energies' partners in the project are the Electric Power Research Institute, the research arm of the utility industry, and Alstom, the French company that developed the technology. Construction will begin late this year and the project will be launched in mid-2007. The pilot will last for one year and then be evaluated. "The development of cost-effective carbon capture technology is one of the most important environmental challenges facing the utility industry in the 21st century," said Rick Kuester, executive vice president of Wisconsin Energy Corp., (WEC) the parent company of We Energies.