Cleco Power is investing in the development of a new, state-of-the-art carbon capture facility located in the heart of central Louisiana at the Brame Energy Center. Project Diamond Vault, which will begin with a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study, will re-engineer Cleco’s existing Madison 3 plant to reduce 95% or more of its carbon dioxide emissions through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology.
Cleco announces the company will invest 900-million dollars to reduce carbon emissions at the largest of its nine electric generation units in Louisiana. CEO Bill Fontenot says the work done at the Brame Energy Center in Lena will remove and compress 95-percent or more of the C-O-two emitted and store it in geological formations under the site.
He says nearby private industries can also take advantage
“We think business and industry will come to not only utilize that clean power but also potentially to inject their own carbon emissions,” he said. “So we’re really building a site for economic development.”
Cleco has named the project Diamond Vault and estimates it will create up to 40 direct jobs and an average of 11-hundred construction jobs in cenla over a three-year period.
Fontenot says Cleco has already secured $9-million in federal monies to help pay for the cost of a front0-end engineering and design study. He says there are also multiple streams of revenue that will be tapped to keep it moving forward, so customers will not see higher rates.
“We believe that private equity will step in and then the revenue stream will be what’s called the 45 Q credits that come about as a result of capturing, storing, and sequestering carbon,” said Fontenot.
Governor John Bel Edwards touted the announcement as another milestone as Louisiana looks to develop and attract more clean energy options. Fontenot says Cleco’s commitment to reducing emissions isn’t new.
“We’ve got our own commitments, and you’ll find under the environmental section a commitment to reduce our carbon output by 2030 by 60 percent,” Fontenot added. “And, of course, be net-zero by 2050.”
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