Smarts = Efficiency
This is relatively old news but I’m fond of it because it is so darned clever. Who knew gas pipelines had step-down (they call them “letdown”) stations like electricity does? The difference is there is a whole lot of mechanical stuff going on that has to be compensated for (along with a “breeze”, when you decrease pressure you decrease temperature). Currently the gas companies use fuel to reheat the lower pressure gas. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
To transport natural gas across the continent, natural gas pipelines operate at high pressures and considerable energy must be injected to achieve the pressures required. This high pressure must be reduced when the gas enters lower pressure systems that deliver gas to homes and businesses. Currently, there is no commercial use made of the energy that is lost at that stage. Additionally, when pressure is reduced, the gas cools. To ensure reliable pipeline operations, the cooling must be offset — by burning some gas in boilers, reheating the supply to an acceptable temperature.
Here is a much more productive solution. Use a turbine to create electricity when you reduce the pressure. Clever, no? But there’s more. If you use a fuel cell to produce more electricity you can use the waste heat (those puppies get VERY hot) to warm the low pressure gas – eliminating the need for boilers. Sweet.
…announced initiating production of the first multi-megawatt hybrid product, generating ultra-clean electricity while recovering energy normally lost during natural gas pipeline operations.
Operating at natural gas pipeline letdown stations, the system generates 2.2 megawatts (MW) of ultra-clean electricity.
With the new DFC-ERG system, high-pressure gas passes through a turbine, capturing some of the energy that was otherwise lost, and turns it into usable electricity. The integrated fuel cell also electrochemically converts some of the gas into low-impact, environmentally friendly electricity. Finally, heat normally generated by the fuel cell warms the gas to its proper distribution temperature — thus eliminating the boiler (and its emissions).
At 2.2 Mw it’s like having a single tower wind farm that runs 24 hrs a day. Since these would be installed at letdown stations along natural gas pipelines it would be very distributed power close to energy users (that’s why there is a letdown station there).
The combined system can achieve electrical efficiencies over 60 percent, with low noise and virtually zero smog emissions.
It’s not like this is going to satiate our energy appetite but I’ll take every 100 Mw we can get – especially since this was formerly wasted energy. Now, will the gas transport comapanies take advantage of this? How can we find out if they do/don’t?
Emissions Based Parking Permits
In many big cities you have to pay to park, imagine if you had to pay based on how much Co2 your car pumped out. Sounds like a great way to make people understand how their choice of automobile effects the rest of us. Well wonder no more because in London they are giving it a shot. With a graduated scale based on how big your cars engine is, the parking fees range from $0 for a Honda Insight, and $588 for a Porsche 911 Carrera coupe (many are not aware that high performance cars have some of the highest emissions and lowest gas mileage).
From here
…
Owners of Honda Insight gasoline-electric powered vehicles would pay nothing for a parking permit. Vehicles with the largest engines, would pay 300 pounds a year. These include Jaguar X type 2.0-liter gasoline sedan, a Porsche 911 Carrera coupe with a 3.6- liter engine, a 2-liter gasoline Renault Espace and a Range Rover with a 4.4-liter engine, according to the examples given by the council.
 for owners of gas-guzzling vehicles, such as Porsches, Jaguars and Range Rovers, under a plan to reduce pollution.</p>
"submit Emissions Based Parking Permits to digg.com")
Shades
Original post by Scytle
San Francisco LGBT Center ‘Rays The Roof’ With A New Solar Installation
Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center yesterday celebrated the unveiling of The Center’s new state of the art solar energy system. Senator Carole Migden, Assemblymember Mark Leno, San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros and San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting joined the celebration along with several hundred community members who could see live readings of the new system’s power generation and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions the system has avoided.
“The San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center is truly a San Francisco icon, and today the Center is demonstrating yet again its leadership on an issue that is dear to all of us — the environment,” said Tom King, CEO, PG&E. “This is the first of many more solar projects that PG&E will be donating to San Francisco as part of our $7.5 million city-wide solar investment.”
The system, manufactured by SunPower and installed by Sun Light and Power, composed of 96 panels rated at 215 watts each is expected to produce over 27,000 kW hours of renewable, green power that will have zero greenhouse gas emissions and will save the Center nearly $5,000 annually in energy costs. The installation of the rooftop solar system, a project managed by The Foundation for Environmental Education, cost $170,000.
Read the rest of San Francisco LGBT Center ‘Rays The Roof’ With A New Solar Installation
Got Wind?
Unlike some snobs on the East Coast there are some people on the Gulf Coast who think an offshore wind farm is a wonderful thing.
The Gulf Coast is littered with the carcasses of unused oil equipment. Now those structures are being repurposed to build the first offshore wind farm in the United States.
The turbines are bound for an 18-square-mile area roughly 10 miles off the coast of Galveston, Texas, where the first offshore wind farm in the US is under construction.
…a Stanford University study that identified the Louisiana-Texas coastline as one of the best spots in the US for wind power. Average wind speed is exceptionally high, and it blows hardest during the hottest hours of the day, when demand for power is at its peak and electricity prices are highest.
WEST signed a contract to deliver 150 megawatts, which should take roughly 50 windmills. A test turbine is scheduled to be in operation this summer; the rest should be spinning by late 2008. Another 50 or so could follow by 2010 if demand warrants.
Don’t the good news just keep comin’ :)
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