Plant Services - March 2008 - (Page 27)

R enewable energy is gaining more attention from industry as questions of energy supply reliability, quality, costs and environmental impact gain management attention. Renewable energy is a tiny fraction of the total energy used by industry, but it’s a rapidly growing fraction, and we can expect to see it accelerate in size and importance. What renewable energy choices are available for industry now and in the near future? What motivates industry leaders to implement renewable energy projects and buy energy from renewable sources? To answer these questions, let’s explore what renewable energy means in the ﬁ rst place. What is renewable energy? Renewable energy is more than electricity, though electric power generation is the sole focus of the Renewable Portfolio Standards of the 29 states that have set targets (Figure 1. Also see www.eere.energy.gov/states/maps/ renewable_portfolio_states.cfm). A more complete view of renewable energy includes several concepts. Primary energy sources that create no new greenhouse gases: e most obvious deﬁnition of renewable energy is a source of energy that is, for all practical purposes, eternal in nature, and produces no greenhouse gases in use. Electricity generated by wind, sun, tides and rivers, and heating derived from the sun are the most obvious examples. ese forms are universally accepted as renewable, despite some debate about other environmental eﬀects of each form. Examples include California Portland Cement’s long-term contract to buy wind-generated electricity to run its facilities. However, even in this most obvious category, state governments have different legalistic interpretations. New York considers electricity from large dams to be renewable; California and the European Union don’t. Primary energy sources with significantly reduced greenhouse gas: More controversially, there’s a range of energy sources that aren’t really eternal in nature, but oﬀer radically reduced greenhouse gas emission. Using methane from landﬁ lls to generate heat or electricity is clearly in this group. It captures emissions of raw methane, which is about 20 times more aggressive as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and generates useful heat and electricity. e extensive use of landﬁ ll gases in BMW’s Kentucky plant is a good example of this approach to renewable energy in action. Infraserv Höchst makes waste into power A new waste-to-energy power plant – the largest of its kind in Germany – will generate clean heat and power for one of the biggest chemical and pharmaceutical parks in Europe. Infraserv Höchst, near Frankfurt-am-Main, is one of Europe’s largest industrial parks for the chemical, pharmaceutical and process industries. Scheduled for completion in 2009, the new waste-toenergy power plant at the park will cost more than $400 million and be the biggest single investment in the site’s 140-year history. It will help Infraserv Höchst supply clean power and heat at competitive prices to the 90 companies employing 22,000 in production and R&D facilities at the site. The plant will produce 70 megawatts of electric power and 250,000 metric tons of steam by incinerating 675,000 metric tons of presorted waste a year, at a relatively high fuel-e ciency level of 90%. Screened and sorted waste is fed into a circulating uidized bed of red-hot quartz sand to produce an intense heat exchange from which power and steam are generated. It’s one of the largest uidized bed installations in the world. Among the many chemical and life science companies with production and R&D facilities at the park are BASF, Bayer, Cargill, Merck and Pfizer. Power and automation supplier ABB was selected by Ebara Corp. of Japan to deliver a complete, integrated solution. A signi cant start Figure 1. More than half of U.S. states have established standards or goals for electricity from renewable sources Renewable electricity standards 25 states + DC 15% by 2020 20.2% by 2025 15% by 2015 10% by 2015 NH: 23.8% by 2025 VT: 10% of 2005 sales by 2013 10% by 2015 25% by 2025 8% by 2020 24% by 2015 ME: 30% by 2000 +10% by 2017 27.4% by 2025 2% by 1999 20% by 2015 20% by 2010 16.1% by 2020 11% by 2020 MA: 4% by 2009 RI: 16% by 2019 CT: 23% by 2020 NJ: 22.5% by 2020 MD: 9.5% by 2022 DE: 20% by 2019 DC: 11% by 2022 VA: 12% by 2022 11.2% by 2021 15% by 2025 16.2% by 2020 15,880Mw (~5.5%) by 2015 Standard Standard and goal Voluntary goal HI: 20% by 2020 M .PLANTSERVICES. 27 http://www.eere.energy.gov/states/maps/renewable_portfolio_states.cfm http://www.eere.energy.gov/states/maps/renewable_portfolio_states.cfm http://www.plantservices.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Plant Services - March 2008

Plant Services - March 2008 Contents From The Editor Letters The PS Files Up and Running Crisis Corner What Works Asset Manager: Enterprise Thinking Technology Toolbox: Hydrogen In Action Cover Story: Get Real Electrical: Reliable Distribution Power Transmission: When the Belt Breaks Web Hunter: Tooting Horns In the Trenches Product Picks Classifieds Fast Facts Energy Expert: Energy versus Sustainability

Plant Services - March 2008

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