Sithe Global Power - Toquop Energy Project

Toquop Energy Project

The Toquop Energy Project is a proposed 750 MW coal-fired electric power plant located 14 miles northwest of the City of Mesquite, Nevada in Lincoln County. The site was originally permitted as a 1,100 MW natural gas-fired power plant. The project would be fueled by Wyoming, Powder River Basin low-sulfur coal and provide electrical power to utilities in Nevada.

The Toquop Project consists of a 750 MW supercritical coal boiler and turbine with an efficiency of over 41%. The project is equipped with a natural draft dry cooling tower. Water consumption is reduced 80 percent compared to a wet cooled plant to less than 2500 Acre Feet unit per year. In addition the project is committed to use municipal wastewater if available as the water source. The project is expected to have the lowest emission permitted to date in the United States by combining a supercritical coal boiler, advanced flue gas treatment and low sulfur Power River Basin Coal. The project will control over 90 percent of NOx emissions and 98 percent of SO2 emissions. The project will also have the best technology for mercury control and will control over 80 percent of the mercury emissions. The project will be designed to have a heat rate of less than 8,700 Btu/kWh, 15 percent more efficient that a similar subcritical plant. Although the technical and emissions parameters exceed most recently proposed plants in the U.S. the technical concept with respect to its components have been proven for over a decade and are known to achieve very high availability.

Benefits to the surrounding community

The construction of a $1 billion power plant will increase the tax base in Lincoln County more than 12 times over the current assessed value of $83 million. Lincoln County has expressed their strong support for the project.

The plant will average 812 construction workers for the 4 year construction period, and 110 full time operations personnel. The direct and indirect payroll during construction will average $159 million per year over the four year construction period and 14.8 million per year during plant operations.

In addition to financial benefits and employment benefits to Lincoln County, the project is working with the county and developers to jointly improve road and water infrastructure and to further the concept of re-use of municipal waste water.