COAL21 Fund

Brief description:

Australian Coal Association – an umbrella organisation of black coal producing companies - set up its A$1 billion Coal21 fund in 2003 in partnership with the electricity industries, unions, federal and state governments and the research community to support the development - and hasten the use of - clean coal strategies and technologies, including post combustion capture, integrated gasification cycle capture, oxyfuel combustion capture and other CCS-related technologies.

It is developing a National Action Plan to identify and test suitable CCS technologies, assess the potential sequestration that could be achieved and describe the actions needed for CCS to be used at a commercial scale in Australia.

The associated Coal21 Fund is a voluntary levy on its members. The original levy of A$ 300 million was increased to A$1 billion to develop CCT technologies, including CCS, over the next 10 years.

To date, the COAL21 Fund has supported the following CCS projects:
- up to A$300 million for a Queensland Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) project, including $26 million for a feasibility study for the ZeroGen Project
- A$68 million to the Callide Oxyfuel Project in Queensland
- A$50 million for a post combustion capture project in New South Wales, starting with the Munmorah PCC Project
- A$20 million for Queensland geosequestration initiatives

It has also given in-principle funding of A$75 million to the National Low Emissions Coal Council's R&D programme, matching the A$75 million commitment of the Commonwealth government.

The country's Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union has called for a target of 5 per cent of electricity to be generated from low emission coal technology by 2020, in order to protect industry and jobs. It has also suggested that the coal industry increase its levy for new technologies.