Industry
News
city’s waterways, while in Russia, St.
Petersburg tips as much as 25 million cu m
(882.9 million cu ft) into the Neva River.
Both cities are looking into ways they can
use snow for district cooling. Similar studies
are under way in Turkey, Canada, Japan
and other Russian cities.
Water is a lot easier to cool with snow
than air, according to Kjell Skogsberg, chief
executive officer for Snowpower.
The installation at Sundsvall Hospital is
an important case study for district cooling.
The basic principles are simple, with the
snow bank stored near the hospital and
insulated with a layer of wood chips. As
the snow melts, the runoff water is filtered
and pumped via a heat exchanger to hospital buildings. Then the warmed water is
routed back to the snow bank to be chilled
again.
The Sundsvall plant uses a combination of natural and artificial snow made by
cannons. “The Sundsvall installation shows
that the technology works, and that we
can save money by using snow for cooling,” Skogsberg explains. “The best
approach, though, would be to have the
snow stored in an underground bunker.”
Studies at LTU have looked at the environmental impacts of snow cooling systems
compared with traditional approaches. The
technology for snow cooling is simple: a
lined pit in the ground is filled with winter
snow and covered with an insulating layer.
Melt water, just above the freezing temperature, is collected at the bottom, filtered
and pumped via underground pipes to the
customer.
Comparative studies show that the
primary impacts from both snow cooling
and traditional air-conditioning systems
occur during operation. Snow cooling is a
clear winner, however, for its lower impact
on climate, acidification and excess fertilization of waterways.
District Heating Development
Center in Denmark
The Danish district heating industry is
soon to establish a development center,
reported the Danish Energy Association in
its daily newsletter. The announcement
comes after 60 leading players from the
industry and the educational sector recently
paved the way by founding the District
Heating Development Centre Association,
which will form the basis of the center.
Anders Hanberg Sørensen, who has
chaired the working group of the District
Heating Development Centre, said, “This is
a vital step for the district heating industry.
There is giant potential both concerning cli-mate-related gains and job creation in the
long term.” Sørensen is also the rector of
the Aarhus School of Marine and Technical
Engineering, where the new center is
planned to be located.
The District Heating Development
Centre aims to support research, development, testing and training in an industry
that generates annual revenues of more
than 16 billion Danish crowns ($3.16 billion). Grundfos, Danfoss, Logstor, the
Aarhus School of Engineering, the Danish
District Heating Association and the Aarhus
School of Marine and Technical Engineering
are among the many companies, organizations and institutions supporting the project.
Veolia COO Interviewed
About District Energy
Bill DiCroce, chief operating officer of
Veolia Energy North America, was interviewed recently by business reporters from
the New England Cable News (NECN) network about district energy, cogeneration
and how they are changing the way cities,
universities and businesses get their energy.
A video interview was posted Oct. 4 on
The Boston Globe Web site.
After explaining the fundamentals of
district energy and cogeneration technologies, DiCroce discussed the future of the
U.S. energy industry, which he said would
include greater use of cogeneration,
renewable energy sources such as solar and
wind, and clean coal, as well as further
development of nuclear energy. He
addressed the impact federal stimulus
funding will have on district energy, saying
that the incentive of available of federal
money may be “the tipping point” that will
compel projects to decide in favor of district energy technology.
The NECN interview can be viewed at
http://tinyurl.com/DiCroce.
SRE Receives Order for Three
New Plants
Svensk Rökgasenergi (SRE), a subsidiary of Opcon AB, has received an order
via its partner, Axis, for three more district
heating plants in Lithuania. The overall
order value for SRE is around 20 million
Swedish crowns ($2.9 million). The agreement covers delivery of three complete
plants for flue gas condensation, purifica-tion and water treatment in order to utilize
waste heat and increase the efficiency of
incineration of biomass at the district heating plants in Naujoj Vilnia, Alytus and
Marijampole. At the same time, emissions
to the environment will be cut significantly.
In all three deliveries, the end customer is
Litesko, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Dalkia. The deliveries are planned for 2009
and 2010.
SRE is part of Opcon´s growing renewable energy business area and its activities
within waste-to-value with a special focus
on waste heat recovery and bioenergy. SRE
delivers systems for, among other applications, treatment and improved energy efficiency at district heating plants powered by
biomass, sawmills, pellets producers and
commercial greenhouses.
EPA Finalizes Rule on
Mandatory Emissions
Reporting
The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) issued a final rule Sept. 22
establishing an economy-wide system for
mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas
emissions (Reporting Rule). Proposed in
April 2009, the Reporting Rule is expected
to apply to approximately 10,000 facilities
across a broad spectrum of economic sectors,
accounting for approximately 85 percent of
greenhouse gas emissions in the United
States. Facilities subject to the Reporting
Rule are required to begin emissions monitoring in January 2010 and submit detailed
annual reports to EPA beginning in 2011.
The Reporting Rule does not require affected
facilities to implement greenhouse gas
