Industry
News
heat and power in the Midwest. Following
a successful initial summit meeting last
February, Heating the Midwest developed
its mission: to advance biomass thermal
heating in the Midwest for a more sustain-
able future, while improving the economic,
environmental and social well-being of
the region. The group has formed “action
teams” to focus on specific initiatives sup-
porting this mission, in the areas of demo-
graphics, biomass resources, benefits and
consequences, biomass combustion tech-
nology, and policy. Heating the Midwest
will hold its first annual conference and
expo in April 2012. For more information,
visit www.heatingthemidwest.org.
Dalkia to Tap Heat From Paris
Data Center
Dalkia will soon open its first district
heating network fueled by energy recovered
from a data center – in the Val d’Europe
business park in Marne-la-Vallée near
Paris. The business park is reportedly
mostly owned by Eurodisney, operator of
Disneyland Paris. At the Val d’Europe park,
Dalkia will transmit waste heat generated
by data center air-conditioning units to
the park’s new heating network via a
heat exchanger. The heating network will
eventually supply green energy to 600,000
sq m ( 6. 46 million sq ft) of building space.
By using waste heat instead of heating oil
or gas, the park will avoid the emission of
more than 5,400 metric tons of carbon
dioxide. Dalkia is responsible for the
design, installation and management of
this new private network. Construction
of the boiler and pipe network began
early last year, with the first connections
expected to be made by summer 2012.
Honeywell to Join Biomass
Processing Projects in Finland
Envergent Technologies LLC, a
Honeywell company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Finland’s
Green Fuel Nordic Oy under which the two
companies would collaborate on projects
to convert biomass to renewable fuel for
use in district heating systems in Finland.
The companies will evaluate the installation
of new facilities to convert forest residues
into liquid biofuel using Envergent’s RTP™
rapid thermal processing technology. RTP
produces a clean, liquid biofuel that can
be burned in industrial burners for heat,
replacing petroleum-based fuel. Green Fuel
Nordic Oy expects to build multiple RTP
facilities in Finland over the next several
years. The RTP technology is currently in
use in seven commercial biomass processing plants in the U.S. and Canada.
Now Available:
2011 Renewables Global
Status Report
The Renewable Energy Policy Network
for the 21st Century (REN21) has issued
its 2011 Renewables Global Status Report,
available for download at www.ren21.net.
Since the first annual report was produced
five years ago, the analysis has become
the most frequently referenced report on
renewable energy business and policy.
Among its key findings: In 2009, renewable energy accounted for 16 percent
of global final energy consumption and
one-quarter of global power capacity from
all sources. Despite the recession, total
investment in renewable energy reached
a record $211 billion in 2010, up from
$160 billion in 2009. China attracted
nearly $50 billion, making it the leader for
the second year in a row. By early 2011,
at least 118 countries had some type of
policy target or renewable support policy
at the national level, up from 55 countries
in early 2005.
The report states that biomass sup-
plies an increasing share of power and heat
and continues to provide the majority of
heating produced with renewable sources.
Trends include the increasing consumption
of solid biomass pellets for heat and power
and use of biomass in combined heat
and power plants and centralized district
heating systems. Biomethane is increas-
ingly injected into pipelines, particularly in
Europe, to replace natural gas in power
and CHP plants. The use of geothermal
energy for CHP is also on the rise, and heat
output from geothermal sources increased
by an average rate of almost 9 percent
annually over the past decade, mainly
due to rapid growth in the use of ground
source heat pumps.
Dalkia Polska Acquires Stake
in Warsaw System
The European Commission has given
the green light for the purchase by Dalkia
Polska, a subsidiary of Dalkia International
and Industry Funds Management, of an
85 percent stake in SPEC SA (Stoeczne
Przedsibiorstwo Energetyki Cieplnej),
which manages the city district heating
network in Warsaw, Poland. The deal will
strengthen Dalkia’s strategic position in
Central Europe and confirm its standing
as Poland’s number one heating market
operator. Warsaw’s heating network
is the largest in the European Union,
covering more than 1,700 km ( 1,056
miles), and the third-largest in the world
after the networks in Moscow and Saint
Petersburg. The Warsaw system supplies
80 percent of the city’s buildings, primarily
apartment houses. Dalkia has been doing
business in Poland for more than 14 years,
managing the production and local distribution of energy in almost 40 cities.
SAV Launches Low-Carbon
Tech Center in U.K.
In November, SAV Systems celebrated
the official opening of its Low Carbon
Technology Centre in Woking, U.K., with
interactive workshops, professional development seminars and a district heating
symposium that featured state-of-the-art
green technologies. At the event, around
80 international specialists in energy solutions for the building services industry were
able to find out more about the company’s
CHP systems, FlatStation district heating
systems, HVAC commissioning and distribution solutions. SAV is the sole U.K. distributor of Danfoss district heating systems.
The two companies are working together
to reduce flow temperatures in district
heating systems and thereby exploit low-carbon heat sources more effectively.
