Distributed Generation

China gas turbine deal for Alstom

Wed, 30 May 2012 12:22:00 GMT

Alstom (Euronext: ALO) has won a deal to supply Harbin Turbine in China with a gas turbine to be used at a combined cycle plant owned by Shenzhen Nantian Electric Power Company.

Alstom will deliver its GT13E2 gas turbine and associated generator that will add to the existing GT13E2 gas turbine generator at the same site.

The plant is slated to be commissioned by 2013.

For more gas power news


		Share

European Smart Grid forum appoints UK chairman

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:25:00 GMT

A European forum on Smart Grids is to be led by a UK industry leader following the appointment of Energy Networks Association chief executive David Smith as its chairman.

GEODE is a European Group of independent energy distribution and distribution-related companies, as well as other organisations in the gas and electricity sectors.

It was set up to aid the EU development in Smart Grid thinking by sharing expertise and feeding this back to the EU Commission.

Smith said: “I’m delighted to have been asked to chair this group. A Smart Grid is a vital part of our energy future in the UK, and, as an interconnected Europe.”

Tests completed on 330 MW cogen unit in China

Fri, 25 May 2012 10:53:00 GMT

Ningxia Electric Power Construction Corp has completed tests on the first combined heat and power unit at a cogeneration project in Ningdong, China.

The 330 MW unit is one of two at the plant which is operated by Ningxia Guodian Younglight Energy and Chemical Industry Group.

The project will supply electricity, steam, heat and secondary desalination to an industrial park and will replace 12 small coal fired boilers.

Construction of the plant began at the end of 2010 but the project didn’t receive final approval from the National Development and Reform Commission until March this year. Both units are expected to be operational by the end of this year.

Ningxia Electric is a subsidiary of Beijing-based Power Construction Corp of China.

GE gas turbines to power Mexico’s Alpek cogeneration project

Thu, 24 May 2012 09:52:00 GMT

GE (NYSE: GE) LM6000 aeroderivative gas turbine technology has been selected for the Alpek gas-fired cogeneration project at its subsidiary Petrotemex’s site in Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, Mexico.

Supporting a Mexican government initiative to encourage more efficient power generation, the plant will produce more than 85 MW of electricity and all the site’s steam requirements.

GE’s aeroderivative gas turbine business will supply two LM6000-PF gas turbine generator packages to a joint venture including Schrader Camargo of Mexico and Sener of Spain, who are the engineering, procurement and construction contractors for the project.

Announced earlier this month at the GE-CONCAMIN Cogeneration Forum, the Alpek cogeneration plant will operate at 85% thermal efficiency and is due to begin commercial service in the first quarter of 2014.

The LM6000-PF units for Alpek will feature DLE technology, which does not use water and guarantees low emissions.

For more distributed generation news


		Share

New CHP plant for UK’s Addenbrooke’s hospital

Wed, 23 May 2012 10:21:00 GMT

A major new energy centre featuring combined heat and power (CHP) is expected to halve carbon emissions at the UK’s world-renowned Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

The energy centre will provide low carbon heating, hot water and electricity for Addenbrooke’s and Rosie hospitals. This will save Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) almost 30,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year, cutting carbon emissions by 47% over the contract term.

Construction is expected to start at the end of the year for the new energy centre to be fully operational by 2015.

Grid electricity and gas consumption will be more than halved, increasing the trust’s energy independence and protecting it from rising energy prices. The energy centre has also been designed with the potential to power future developments at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

MITIE has preferred bidder status to develop and operate the energy centre over a 25-year period. It will be developed in partnership with the NHS Carbon and Energy Fund, which supports projects meeting a certain level of carbon savings.

The hospital trust’s existing energy centre houses the NHS’s first combined heat and power plant, which has been providing sustainable energy to the expanding campus for 20 years. The trust incinerates its clinical waste on-site within the energy centre and uses clinical waste produced on the campus as a fuel source to provide heat and hot water to the campus.

With advances in technologies, the new energy centre will house a brand new incinerator, a highly efficient Rolls-Royce combined heat and power plant, and will also use wood chip as a fuel source.

MITIE has also been contracted to reduce energy demand on the existing CUH campus through a number of initiatives including a major lighting upgrade throughout the hospital.

Mike Tivey, managing director of MITIE’s Asset Management division, said the energy centre would provide ‘significant economic and sustainability benefits’.

‘In an increasingly volatile energy environment, this will provide CUH with increased energy resilience and predictably priced energy over the long term,’ he said.

For more distributed generation news

EuroSite CHP system to power UK hotel

Wed, 23 May 2012 10:05:00 GMT

EuroSite Power Inc has announced an agreement to supply clean energy to Cedar Court Hotel in Huddersfield in the north of England in the UK.

Under the company’s On-Site Utility solution, EuroSite Power will replace the hotel’s existing combined heat and power system (CHP) system with a state-of-the-art 100 kW CHP system owned and operated by EuroSite Power.

EuroSite Power will receive �1.5m ($2.4m) over a 15-year contract and handle all service, maintenance and repair. The hotel will avoid all capital, installation and operating costs. Cedar Court will pay only for the energy used by the system and receive a guaranteed discount on power generated.

The system will generate up to 2 MWh each and produce space heat and hot water for the hotel’s health club.

“Having operated a CHP for some years Cedar Court already understood the value of the technology. They also quickly saw the commercial advantages of our unique On-Site Utility solution,” said Paul Hamblyn, managing director of EuroSite Power.

“Many CHP systems installed over the last 25 years are now in need of replacement and the company continues to pursue this opportunity to accelerate its growth within the UK and European markets.”

Shares in EuroSite Power's ultimate parent, American DG Energy Inc, are traded in New York (NYSE Amex: ADGE). American DG Energy is an on-site utility offering electricity, heat, hot water and cooling to commercial, institutional and industrial customers across America.

For more distributed generation news


		Share

German cogeneration plant to receive Dresser-Rand turbine

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:15:00 GMT

US industrial rotation equipment supplier, Dresser-Rand (NYSE: DRC), is to provide Max B�gl Group with an indirectly fired KG 2-3 G gas turbine for its new biomass cogeneration plant in Bavaria, Germany.

The heat from the plant will be used to produce five tons of saturated steam which, in turn, will be used to produce concrete for pre-fabricated components and for electricity conversion.

As part of the company’s objective of reducing emissions, chips made from untreated wood, which will come from local agriculture and foresting farms or short rotation forestry, will be used as a CO2-neutral fuel.

By producing 2 MW of energy using renewable sources, Max B�gl will receive compensation from the German Renewable Act which provides incentives and compensation to companies that produce energy using renewable sources.

For more distributed generation news


		Share

5 MW solar module delivered to Bulgaria

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:21:00 GMT

China Sunergy (NASDAQ: CSUN) has completed delivery of 5 MW in solar modules for the Yerussalimovo solar park in Bulgaria.

China Sunergy sold the modules to Mitsubishi International and are being installed and managed by Helios Power.

Since the beginning of 2012, a total of 22.32 MW modules have been delivered by the company to Bulgaria.

For more renewable power news


		Share

Apple announces solar powered future and ditches coal

Fri, 18 May 2012 09:18:00 GMT

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) says that all three of its server centres will be run by solar power alone in the very near future.

In addition the company says it intends to be coal-free by the end of 2012.

Solar manufacturers SunPower Corp and Bloom Energy are currently being engaged by Apple to build two solar array installations near its North Carolia Data Center.

Once up, the solar farm will supply 84m kWh of energy annually. The sites will employ high-efficiency solar cells and an advanced solar tracking system.

"I'm not aware of any other company producing energy onsite at this scale,” said Apple CFO, Peter Oppenheimer as reported in the Guardian.

For more distributed generation news


		Share

'Steel city’ ponders district heating from steel plants

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:10:00 GMT

The steel city of Sheffield in the UK is pondering the use of its most famously associated commodity, in a district energy initiative.

Engineers believe that excess heat from steel plants could be used to heat the city, significantly reducing the city’s CO₂ emissions.

According to a statement, steel could help provide a green alternative for heating Sheffield’s homes and businesses, alongside other renewable energy sources, reports the Engineer.

Experts from Sheffield University’s engineering faculty believe that the many steel plants located just outside the city centre could be connected to Sheffield’s existing district heating network to provide an extra 20 MW of thermal energy.

‘It actually costs the steel plants to reduce the temperature of the flue gas and to cool the water used during steel manufacture,’ said Prof Jim Swithenbank, who played a key role in developing the first phase of Sheffield’s district heating system in the late 1970s.

‘Recovering this heat and transferring it to the district heating network reduces the cost of heat production, improves energy efficiency and is beneficial to the environment, making a win-win situation for the steelworks and the city.’

Sheffield already has the largest district heating system in the UK, powered through an energy recovery facility that burns the city’s non-recyclable waste.

Each year this generates 21MW of electricity, enough to power 22,000 homes, and 60MW of thermal energy in the form of super-heated steam, which is pumped around the city in a 44km network of underground pipes.

This provides space heating and hot water to more than 140 public buildings and 3000 homes across the city, reducing the city’s CO₂ emissions by 21000 tonnes a year.

While some UK cities are now using their waste incineration plants to generate electricity, few connect such facilities to a district heating system.

‘The analysis we’ve carried out in Sheffield could be mirrored across other UK cities,’ said Prof Vida Sharifi, who led the research. ‘Heating buildings is responsible for half the energy use in the UK.

The government has estimated that if district heating were used across the UK in areas with high heat demand, it could supply around 5.5 million properties and contribute a fifth of the UK’s heating needs.”

For more distributed generation news

Wartsila signs gas power agreement in South Africa

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:14:00 GMT

W�rtsil� has signed three year Operations & Maintenance (O&M) agreement with Sasol New Energy Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sasol, the integrated global energy and chemical company.

The agreement covers the company's gas engine power plant project in Sasolburg, South Africa.

The Sasol New Energy plant is expected to start producing electricity towards the end of 2012. It will be the largest power plant running exclusively on gas engines to be installed on the African continent, and because of its low emissions, will be a major advance in developing Sasol's electricity business.

"The gas engine power plant employs a cleaner fossil fuel based technology than traditional coal based technology and will reduce the CO₂ emissions by approximately 1 million tons per annum. In addition, it also generates electricity at a higher efficiency," says Kribs Govender, General Manager, Low Carbon Electricity, Sasol New Energy.

For more oil and gas power news

New Zealand’s largest solar plant operational

Fri, 11 May 2012 10:21:00 GMT

Engineering company South Auckland Forging Engineering (SAFE), is the owner of New Zealand’s largest solar power plant to date, with the opening of the new facility in the town of Drury.

The solar farm has been developed by Ramarama company. In total, the 68-KW solar farm is expected to meet 70 per cent of the company’s power needs, as well as the electricity needs of 12 houses, through the renewable energy gained from its solar photovoltaic panels. There are additional plans to sell back any power surplus.

The latest initiative is well in line with the New Zealand government’s carbon reduction target, which would see 90 per cent of the country’s electricity generated by renewable means by 2025.

For more distributed generation news

BP’s Brazilian unit to invest $25.5m in cogeneration project

Thu, 10 May 2012 12:36:00 GMT

BP Biocombustiveis, the Brazilian biofuels unit of BP (NYSE: BP), has announced that it will invest $25.5m in the development of a project for energy cogeneration from sugar cane bagasse.

The development will be located at its sugar and ethanol mill Tropical, in Brazil's central Goias state.

As a result of the project, the unit, which has capacity to crush 2.5 million tonnes of sugar cane per harvest, will be able to produce 170 GWh.

The company's energy cogeneration will ramp up to 510 GWh in 2013 from the 340 GWh estimated for this year, according to Mario Lindenhayn, CEO of BP Biocombustiveis.

For more distributed power news

BSkyB and BAA to benefit from combined heat and power

Tue, 08 May 2012 21:07:00 GMT

Turboden, the leading manufacturer of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbogenerators, has been awarded an order for a 1 MW ORC plant from BSkyB and a 1.8 MW ORC plant for BAA, both located in London, UK.

“Traditionally Turboden has developed projects in which ORC units were suitable for district-heating in small-medium villages” - says Paolo Bertuzzi, General Manager Turboden “in the last years Turboden has started developing trigenerative projects for large single public or private buildings whose drive is not only the return of the investment but also the green vision of the environment”.

Last December the first ORC unit was installed in the British Headquarter of BSkyB by Clearpower Ltd, a leading Bioenergy Solutions provider in the UK.

The plant will produce 1MWe and 4MWth (5 per cent heating for the building, 50 per cent to chiller and 45 per cent as heating to a district heating loop around the campus).

The biomass-fuelled combined cooling and heating power (CCHP) is to reduce the building’s carbon footprint by at least 20 per cent.

The second Turboden ORC unit by the London Heathrow Airport will produce 1.8MWe and 8MWth (75 per cent heat and 25 per cent to chiller, heating and cooling to Terminals T2a and T2b and heat only to Terminal T5). The biomass-fuelled combined cooling and heating (CCHP) power plant is to reduce the carbon footprint of the airport overall, by at least 40 per cent, by using renewable source of energy. Start-up is expected in the 2nd quarter of 2012.

The Italian firm is a Pratt & Whitney Power Systems company and Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company.

For more distributed generation news

GE technology to heat and power central London

Tue, 08 May 2012 13:13:00 GMT

The first of three GE 2 MW Jenbacher CHP systems has been installed at the on-site energy centre in King's Cross, central London, UK, and the same technology is set to provide the area’s district heating, once commissioned this summer.

Together the systems will supply 100 per cent of the development's heat and offset almost 80 per cent of its electrical power demand, thanks to a deal between GE (NYSE: GE) and the King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership.

All of the 70 buildings at King's Cross, from the University of Arts to the Camden Council building, BNP Paribas Real Estate's new offices and the Great Northern Hotel, will be connected to the district heating scheme.

When complete carbon emissions are expected to be a third less than 'business as usual' and up to 60 per cent less than 2001 levels.

Clare Hebbes, from the King's Cross Central Limited Partnership, said, 'Through our work with GE, we expect to exceed many of the targets we have set for King's Cross as a genuine 21st century sustainable city centre development. GE understands what leading technologies are available and how best to apply them to a piece of city like King's Cross.

This starts with the CHP and we anticipate many other initiatives in the years ahead.

For more distributed generation news

Smart Grid system provider wins Scottish wind farm contract

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:03:00 GMT

S&C Electric Co., the Chicago-based Smart Grid specialist is capitalising on Europe’s drive to develop its wind energy resources.

The company’s European subsidiary, S&C Electric Company Europe Ltd., has won a “multimillion-pound contract” from EDF Renewables to provide a smart grid system that will modulate the variable output of clean, renewable electricity to be produced from the Fallago Rig wind farm in the Scottish Border region south of Edinburgh.

S&C Electric, won the contract ahead of some much larger power industry technology and equipment providers such as ABB Ltd. (NYSE: ABB), GE (NYSE: GE) and Siemens NYSE: SI.

Located in the Scottish Borders region, EDF Renewable’s Fallago Rig wind farm will be the site of some 48 wind turbines with a total rated capacity of 144 MW, enough clean, renewable electrical power to supply some 90,000 homes, reports Clean Technica.

“To guarantee Grid Code compliance, S&C will deliver a 60MVAR PureWave DSTATCOM� Distributed Static Compensator to reduce voltage variations such as sags, surges, and flicker which can result from intermittent electricity generation, along with instability caused by rapidly varying reactive power demands,” S&C explained in a press release.

For more Smart Grid news

World’s largest CCS plant opens in Norway

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:52:00 GMT

The world’s largest carbon capture and storage demonstration project was launched in Norway yesterday.

The $1bn facility at Mongstat was opened by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who called it “an important project for Norway and for the world”.

The centre will capture gases from two nearby sources – a 280 MW combined heat and power plant and a refinery used by Shell and other oil firms which has carbon emissions similar to those of a coal fired plant.

European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger hailed the opening of the plant as “an important milestone in Europe's undertaking to develop CCS technologies”.

“It will provide a new momentum to the discussion of CCS use in Europe," he added.

Norway is the world's eighth-biggest exporter of oil and Western Europe’s biggest exporter of natural gas.

For more European power news

US state governor argues passionately for cogeneration

Fri, 04 May 2012 12:39:00 GMT

The governor of the US state of Ohio, John Kasich has criticised the renewable energy lobby in the state for an irresponsible self interest in objecting to cogeneration.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Gov. Kasich offered a most-passionate defence of his proposal to include cogeneration as an acceptable form of renewable energy in Ohio’s energy mix.

He singled out wind and solar power lobbyists as particularly culpable.

"All those who are in alternative energy and renewable standards believe in a cleaner environment, and that's just fantastic," Kasich said. "But don't lobby for your own industry to keep other industries out that result in a cleaner environment. And that happens. So if I'm in the wind or the solar industry, I'm not so excited about waste heat or cogeneration because I get a nice big fat subsidy. OK.

That's just not the way it ought to be, because our goal ought to be a cleaner environment, and whatever moves us to a cleaner environment ought to be a part of it. ...

"I'm a little disappointed when people lobby, and totally in self-interest."

The newspaper speculates that Kasich might have been referring to ongoing testimony related to Senate Bill 315, which would allow cogeneration --essentially the capture of waste heat --to be used to meet the state's energy-efficiency requirements.

A previous Senate-passed bill would add cogeneration to the definition of renewable energy, making it eligible for renewable-energy credits.

Last month, Columbus lobbyist Terrence O'Donnell testified before a Senate committee on behalf of wind-farm builder EDP Renewables of Houston against the "unqualified inclusion of cogeneration in the renewable-energy standard."

For more cogeneration policy news

Jeffrey Sachs says nuclear power is the only option

Fri, 04 May 2012 11:06:00 GMT

Earth Institute director and top economist Jeffrey Sachs says the world has no option but to embrace nuclear power, if climate change is to be effectively combated.

Mr Sachs believes that the urgency of the climate change issue and immaturity of renewable energy industry leave little choice but to accept nuclear power as the solution.

"We won't meet the carbon targets if nuclear is taken off the table. Fossil fuel prices will remain low enough to wreck [low-carbon energy] unless you have incentives and [carbon] pricing.

"Emissions per unit of energy need to fall by a factor of six. That means electrifying everything that can be electrified and then making electricity largely carbon-free. It requires renewable energy, nuclear and carbon capture and storage – these are all very big challenges. We need to understand the scale of the challenge."

Sachs warned that "nice projects" around the world involving renewable power or energy efficiency would not be enough to stave off the catastrophic effects of global warming.

"We are nowhere close to that – as wishful thinking and corporate lobbies are much more powerful than the arithmetic of climate scientists," he told the Asian Development Bank meeting in Manila, the Philippines.

In recent weeks a group of four prominent UK environmentalists, including Jonathon Porritt and former heads of Friends of the Earth UK Tony Juniper and Charles Secrett, have been campaigning against nuclear, arguing that it is unnecessary, dangerous, too expensive, and in Porritt’s words “nothing like as reliable as the industry would have us believe."

For more nuclear power news

German minister calls for more land-based wind energy

Fri, 04 May 2012 10:32:00 GMT

Germany’s transport minister Peter Ramsauer is advocating the (CSU) accelerated expansion of wind power on land, because of the delays in development of coastal wind energy.

Ramsauer, speaking to the “Hamburger Abendblatt”, said that wind power on land has the most economical expansion potential, in both the short and medium term.

The minister also called on local authorities to ease planning laws for the replacement of old windmills, in order to achieve land-based wind energy potential.

“We want more powerful equipment in highly suitable and landscape-friendly locations.”

For more renewable power news