Industry
News
to extract water for the production of 170
MW of heat energy. The plant is expected
to start operation in two years.
COGEN Europe: Break
Impasse on Climate Talks
In an Aug. 11 statement, COGEN
Europe called on industrialized countries
participating in the United Nations’ climate
talks in Bonn, Germany, to break the impasse
created by their lack of progress. The group
called for Europe and developed economies
to tackle the overdue issue of their energy
waste and poor energy efficiency to demonstrate sincerity to the global community and
to buy time for other technologies to mature.
According to Yvo de Boer, executive
secretary of the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change, one of the most
important issues at the Bonn talks was
“how rich countries are going to show
leadership to reduce their emissions.”
“Time is running out,” de Boer said. “We
are absolutely not on track to stay below
two degrees Celsius.”
COGEN Europe emphasizes that energy
efficiency is central to fighting climate change
and that cogeneration is making an important contribution to meeting global heat and
electricity demand – a contribution that
could be even greater with increased political
focus. The organization maintains the economic potential exists to double cogeneration in Europe from the existing 11 percent
to 22 percent of the total electricity supplied.
Petratherm to Finalize
Madrid Geothermal Plans
The BusinessGreen Web site reported
Aug. 19 that Australia-based geothermal
energy specialist Petratherm has signed a
partnership deal with the Spanish federal
and Madrid regional governments to draw
up plans for a large-scale geothermal district
heating project in the Spanish capital.
Petratherm is preparing to build an 8 MW
geothermal district heating operation north
of the city to provide heat for local buildings.
Under the terms of the agreement,
Petratherm and the two governments are
to form a joint committee to complete the
project planning stage. The committee will
secure customers for the supply of heat,
including from government offices; identify
subsidy options for the project; secure suppliers and contractors; and obtain the necessary environmental permits for drilling
and development.
The Spanish government said it would
also provide 87,000 euros ($128,000) in
funding from the Institute of Renewable
Energy and Energy Efficiency toward the
feasibility assessment to be completed by
the end of the year.
Petratherm is planning similar geothermal plants in Barcelona and has secured
a geothermal exploration license on the
volcanic island of Tenerife.
State of California’s Plant
On Line
California state officials and local construction workers gathered in Sacramento
Aug. 24 to celebrate the opening of the
new central plant that heats and cools the
capitol and 22 state office buildings. The
78,000-sq-ft facility is the largest of its kind
in the western United States and will operate
on 90 percent less water than its predecessor.
The new plant’s progressive green design
will help the state reduce energy costs, cut
water usage and provide better reliability
to state buildings. The old central plant,
built in 1968, was to be demolished in
October. Much of the demolition material
is to be recycled.
The Department of General Services
built the new facility to meet or exceed
the goals set by Gov. Schwarzenegger in
his 2004 executive order that directed the
greening of state buildings. The new central plant is expected to achieve LEED®
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design) Gold certification next year. A second
phase of the project will include construction
of a 140-ft-tall, 4. 25 million-gallon thermal
energy storage tank to store reserves of
chilled water produced during off-peak
energy demand times for use during the
heat of the day. Solar panels will also be
installed on the new facility to power the
energy needs of the office space within it.
Sierra Debuts Ultrasonic
Thermal Energy Meter
Sierra Instruments has introduced its
new Innova-Sonic® Model 205 thermal
energy flow meter, a transit-time ultrasonic
meter designed to measure the thermal
energy flow rate and totalized energy consumption in liquid heating and cooling
applications. Applications include HVAC,
office buildings, large condominium or
apartment developments, solar thermal
heating and geothermal projects.
The unit offers high accuracy (+/-0.5
percent of reading), enabling custody transfer of thermal energy. Built-in totalizers and
data loggers are used to record daily, monthly
and yearly totalized energy usage and report
total energy used. These functions make it
easy to account for energy usage and accurately allocate costs to end-users. A built-in
secure digital card and a supplied data-analysis and graphing program allow for
convenient storage and analysis of collected data.
The Model 205 thermal energy meter
includes ultrasonic transducers, remote
electronics and two PT100 resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) supplied by Sierra.
The two RTDs (either insertion or surface-mounted) measure the temperature of the
supply and return flow. The meter’s electronics then uses these inputs, along with
the measured flow rate from the ultrasonic
transducers, to calculate the thermal energy
flow rate in user-defined units (Btu per
hour or kilojoules per hour, for example).
For more details, visit www.sierrainstru
ments.com.
Innova-Sonic® Model 205 meter
