Southern Company, which manages and operates the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Carbon Capture Center, just announced that they will be partnering with NRG Energy on advanced carbon capture technologies to capture carbon dioxide produced by coal-burning plants.

The National Carbon Capture Center is expected to be operational in 2010, and to use its partnerships with energy companies to explore ways of capturing and storing carbon dioxide to keep it out of the atmosphere.

In this article from Reuters, executives from both companies commented on the partnership:

“We welcome NRG to the growing partnership at the National Carbon Capture Center,” said David Ratcliffe, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company.

“Carbon capture is an important component of the diverse portfolio of technologies our nation must pursue to meet our energy and environmental challenges. NRG’s involvement strengthens our effort to develop and deploy these critical solutions.” “As we look to further decarbonize our fleet and push to develop and deploy these advanced technologies on a larger scale, initiatives like the National Carbon Capture Center will bring us closer to meeting the challenges of global climate change and transitioning to an environmentally sustainable energy future,” said NRG President and CEO David Crane.