Industry
News
German City Builds
Biogas Network
The city of Lünen, Germany, is the first
in the world to build and manage a biogas
network. Agricultural biomass delivered
from local farms – including animal waste,
corn, wheat and grass – will be turned into
biogas in anaerobic digesters for use by the
city’s power plant. The gas will power a
series of 12 Schmitt Enertec cogeneration
units that feed electricity into the grid and
heat into local district heating networks.
The 6. 8 MW plant will produce
enough energy to supply 26,000 houses
with heat and electricity. An estimated
90,000 residents will benefit from this low-cost alternative to oil, coal and Russian gas.
The network is expected to be operational
by December 2009.
Biogas fermenter
Support Needed for
Solar Thermal Growth
As reported May 19 by news service
New Energy Focus, Solar Trade Association
Chairman Howard Johns told an industry
gathering that solar thermal technology is
“ready to go” in the United Kingdom but
is waiting for government support. Johns
made the remarks speaking at the New
Energy Focus Renewable Heat conference
in London in May. He noted that what is
needed now is “the right support and
financial mechanisms” to encourage growth
of solar-powered heating systems.
Johns, who is also managing director
of solar installation company Southern Solar,
said that solar thermal district heating has
the potential to provide 9 percent of the
U.K.’s renewable energy mix by 2020. He
highlighted the fact that solar thermal
technology is both low-cost and versatile,
and he emphasized that, in the UK, solar
thermal could provide most if not all of a
household’s heating from April to September.
Illustrating the potential of solar power,
Johns told attendees about a town in
Germany that is served by both a biomass
district heating system and a solar thermal
district heating system. “No one’s done that
in the UK yet, but hopefully if the incentives
are right, they will be doing it,” he said.
Johns also commented, “You actually get
more energy out of a field full of solar panels
than you do from a field full of biomass.”
Calgary Cogen Project
Gets Stimulus Funding
A University of Calgary cogeneration
project will get support from federal and
provincial economic stimulus funding.
Expected to come on line by the end of
2011, the cogeneration plant will receive
CA$29.8 million ($25.6 million) in federal
funds that will be matched by the Alberta
government.
The cogeneration project will convert
an aging heating and cooling plant into a
12-15 MW cogeneration facility. The new
plant will generate electricity from natural
gas and capture the waste heat to be used
in buildings across campus. It will result in
CA$3.5 million ($3.01 million) in cost savings
on energy bills per year and reduce the
university’s carbon dioxide emissions by
80,000 tonnes annually.
UK Report: Why Waste Heat?
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
has released a report stating that the U.K.
could meet 5 percent of its current heating
demand by 2020 by recovering heat from
existing centralized power stations. The report,
based on research by the University of
Southampton sustainability research group,
says this would largely be achieved by introducing combined heat and power and disrict
heating networks at specific locations where
there is a significant population with a 10-km
( 6.21-mile) radius of a viable power station.
Currently heat production accounts for 49
percent of all primary energy consumed in
the U.K. – more than is used in electricity
production or transportation – and mainly
comes from gas.
“The truth is that if half of the heat lost
during electricity production could be captured
it would meet 25 percent of the U.K.’s heat
demand, dramatically reducing energy consumption, cutting costs and carbon emissions,” said Keith Tovey of ICE’s Energy
Panel. “In the longer term we need to
consider the potentially huge benefits that
decentralized CHP could bring to the U.K.
With the current generation of thermal
power stations coming to the end of their
lifespan, there is a real opportunity to vastly
improve the efficiency of our energy sector…”
The report, titled Why Waste Heat?, is
the second in a series of energy briefing
papers produced by the ICE. It can be down
loaded at www.ice.org.uk/downloads/
/heat_ report.pdf.
Portland’s North Pearl District
Considers District Energy
The Daily Journal of Commerce in
Portland, Ore., reported June 11 that a
recent study has concluded that Portland’s
North Pearl District “is financially sound
and would have immediate environmental
benefits” from a district energy system. The
study, financed by the city of Portland and
performed by Compass Resource Management and FVB Energy Inc., further concluded
that more work needs to be done to
determine the site and scale of a district
energy plant and that the city should
explore bioenergy options to power the
energy system.
Michael Armstrong, deputy director of
Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, said, “There is a huge opportunity
sitting there for all of us.” He said he wants
to speak with Pearl District community
members, including developers, to see how
to proceed with the energy system. More
work sessions and discussions with the
Portland City Council are also needed, he said.
John Sorenson, executive director of
N2e, a local nonprofit organization that
works with communities around Oregon
to develop district energy, first proposed
the idea of a Pearl District energy system
in 2007. Among his proposals is tapping
warmth from the Willamette River water
to heat buildings in the district. He is looking
