A Cambridge start-up that converts coal to clean-burning natural gas will take its cutting-edge process to the next step, building a $25 million demonstration plant near Fall River to ready their technology for full-scale commercial production.

“This is where we are going to demonstrate our technology to the world,” said Andrew Perlman, GreatPoint’s chief executive. “This is going to be the most leading-edge gasification center anywhere.”

The development of the demonstration plant and research center represents a milestone not only for the company, but also the state and its burgeoning alternative energy sector. GreatPoint is considered among the nation’s most promising alternative energy firms, and recently raised $100 million from investors, one of the industry’s biggest venture capital rounds ever.

For Massachusetts, GreatPoint’s selection of Brayton Point over sites in three other states further solidifies its position as a leading center of alternative energy technology, an emerging sector that employs an estimated 14,000 in the state. It also indicates the sector is maturing, moving closer to commercial production that could mean even more growth for the sector and state employment.

“This isn’t a few hippies in the backwoods,” said Warren Leon, director of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, which finances alternative energy projects. “GreatPoint is showing that creative new technologies are starting to hit the big time.”

The demonstration plant will produce natural gas on a small scale as a way to test and refine the process for full-scale commercial production. Once the technology proves ready for commercial production, Massachusetts could reap another benefit too: lower energy costs. Massachusetts companies and residents pay among the highest natural gas rates in the country. Perlman said his firm’s process can produce natural gas for about half the cost it now sells for.

“One of our major economic challenges is the high cost of natural gas,” said state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles, “and this is potentially a game-changing technology.”

GreatPoint uses a proprietary catalyst to convert coal, petroleum coke, a refining byproduct, and organic material, such as switch grass, into methane, a clean-burning natural gas that can be transported through existing pipelines and burned in existing equipment. The process prevents the release of carbon dioxide, a so-called greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, and captures other byproducts, such as sulfur, which can be reused by chemical makers.

Maine anti-wind claims address the limits of needing to put turbines along mountain ridges. This statement does not point out that even 1000 MWe of wind power would only produce about one-third of the power produced by the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant.  Maine Yankee should still be operating (at about 90% capacity factor) if it had been effectively managed and/or purchased, instead of the short-sighted “decision” to dismantle it.

Maine, and New England, do not have the wind, nor solar, sources to meet future energy needs, even while letting its industrial capacity continue to decline.  New England will eventually have to face the fact that they need to build the Generation III+, or even Generation IV, nuclear power plants.  But will this be too little, too late, for the New England economy?

My late Uncle Harold never lacked for strong opinions. He served with Patton’s Third Army in Europe and life taught him not to waste time gladly suffering fools. So it was that after he became an engineer, my uncle later worked on the construction of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power reactor near San Luis Obispo, Calif. It was, no pun intended, always a hot topic of debate at family gatherings.

Since I was a “no nukes” kind of guy, there was no way I would ever trust The Man to do right by the environment. To me, Diablo Canyon and all the other nuclear energy plants going up around the country constituted an invitation to inevitable disaster. My heart was with the green movement. Back then, anti-nuclear sentiment was running high–especially after the accidents at Three Mile Island in March 1979 and Chernobyl seven years later.

“Do you have any idea what you’re talking about?” Uncle Harold said.

The overhang from the no-nukes era still casts a shadow. Any proposal to put more investment into nuclear energy always presents the risk of political suicide.

Well, that was a bit fresh. After all, I had watched The China Syndrome. OK, even though it was a movie, what if the scenario played out for real?

Uncle Harold, who was having none of it, refused to buy into any emotional arguments. He ticked off with lapidary precision a long list of benefits from nuclear energy and explained the safety mechanisms that accompanied the construction of modern plants. That was so unfair of him to use facts in an argument where it was clear that I was on the side of the angels.

Of course, I wasn’t alone in making the popular mistake of twinning opposition to the spread of nuclear weaponry with nuclear energy. As if they were forever joined at the hip. My uncle died a couple of years ago. I don’t know whether I’ve become any wiser over the years but with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, I sure wish I could get a do-over with him.

Fast-forward three decades after those conversations and this country–along with the rest of the word–is locked in a noisy debate about how best to reduce fossil fuel consumption. It’s been a slow haul.

If we can get one-third of world energy from nuclear power sources (which is 100% of 1990 world energy use), can we get renewables and fossil fuels to DOUBLE 1990 energy use to provide two-thirds of the world’s 2050s energy requirements?

Or do we need to produce more nuclear power?

EnergyBizInsider: Natural Gas Loses Stride
September 28, 2007

“The natural gas sector has lost its stride. A decade and a half ago, the industry was hot. Now, its product is considered expensive and untenable. The fix is easy, say producers. They want more access to deep waters offshore and in the Rocky Mountains.”