GreatPoint Will Get Coal from Peabody

Wade Roush 1/28/08

GreatPoint Energy, a well-funded Cambridge, MA, startup focused on turning coal into natural gas, could have trouble making its technology pay off unless its planned gasification plants are close to both coal mines, minimizing transportation costs, and locations where the carbon dioxide released during the gasification process can be sequestered underground. Today, GreatPoint announced that it’s taken care of the first requirement, at least, entering into a long-term agreement with St. Louis-based Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) to build plants at or near the company’s mines in the coal-rich Powder River Basin region of Montana and Wyoming. GreatPoint also said that Peabody has invested an undisclosed sum in the company.

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com, call him at (617) 252-7323, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wroush.