Southern Company today assumed leadership of the Carbon Capture International Test Center Network, a global coalition of facilities working to accelerate the research and development of carbon capture technologies. The National Carbon Capture Center, a U.S. Department of Energy research facility managed and operated by Southern Company, will serve as the host site for the ITCN.

Formed in 2012, the ITCN facilitates knowledge-sharing among carbon capture test facilities around the world with the goal of advancing the development and commercial deployment of carbon capture technologies.

"Southern Company is at the forefront of worldwide efforts to create the next generation of carbon capture technologies," said Southern Company Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Kimberly S. Greene. "Through our partnership with DOE and ITCN members, we are building on our commitment to finding real solutions by developing advanced, coal-based technologies."

The NCCC will chair and operate the ITCN with DOE's Office of Fossil Energy for the next two years, a role held by Technology Centre Mongstad of Norway since 2013. The transfer of the chairmanship was officially observed during a ceremony today in Houston, attended by representatives of DOE, Southern Company and TCM.

Working with scientists and technology developers from government, industry and universities, the NCCC, located in Alabama, conducts R&D to evaluate and advance emerging carbon capture technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and natural gas-based power generation.

An industry leader in robust, proprietary R&D, Southern Company has managed more than $2 billion in R&D investments since the 1960s. The Southern Company system's environmental R&D also includes conducting the nation's largest demonstration of carbon capture on a pulverized-coal power plant at subsidiary Alabama Power's Plant Barry, and the development of Transport Integrated Gasification – or TRIG – the 21st century coal technology at the center of Southern Company subsidiary Mississippi Power's Kemper County energy facility. The Kemper project is designed to generate electricity from low-rank coal with resulting carbon emissions better than a similarly sized natural gas plant. TRIG™ and other proprietary technologies were developed at the NCCC.