August 25, 2010 -
Is your company looking to expand beyond the U.S. and into international export opportunities? Does PV in Spain interest you? Or perhaps coal-fired power in Russia? The answers to your international expansion questions may be found in Orlando this December.
Each year, Pennwell hosts Power-Gen International, bringing in companies across all sectors of the industry. In its 20th year, Power-Gen (Dec. 14-16 in Orlando) is poised to include 1,200 exhibitors and more than 18,000 attendees. An aspect often overlooked at this massive exhibition is the opportunity to connect with international delegations that provide valuable export opportunities for U.S. companies.
At Power-Gen 2009, delegations from 28 countries were in attendance, with buyers totaling 399 members. The U.S. Commercial Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, is responsible for the application process to usher in delegations. Blanche Ziv, director of the U.S. Commercial Service’s International Buyer Program (IBP), said these meetings can eventually lead to construction of power plants overseas.
“It’s a great networking place for all of these meetings,” Ziv said. “The U.S. company doesn’t have to leave their own backyard to meet all of these international buyers.”
The annual application process for all U.S. trade shows to host delegations opens once a year. The open 60-day application period for participation in the 2012 calendar year is expected to open sometime in early September 2010.
IBP considers several criteria to determine whether or not to select a trade show to participate in the program: international interest as determined by IBP’s overseas posts in products and services, export potential of products and services exhibited at the show, logistics of the show to make sure it is occurring in a place that is conducive to international visitors, and the type of incentives the shows offer to U.S. Commercial Service overseas posts.
Once the trade shows have been chosen, delegations are selected, and a directory of delegations is created. IBP conducts a B-to-B matchmaking process in which the show receives a list of the delegations’ services and collects a list of the U.S. businesses that are interested in exporting.
In addition to export opportunities that can arise during these shows for U.S. companies, a door to provide power to countries under the burden of natural disasters is also ajar. Chief Editor for Power Engineering, David Wagman, talks about some of those opportunities in his blog entry Opportunity and Obligation.
Want more information on how to become part of a delegation, or how to connect with delegations?
Click here for a list of 2011 Accepted Shows for IBP Delegations.
Click here for information on how to get involved.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Everything's Bigger in Texas...Even Power Usage
August 17, 2010-
Yesterday, Texas hit a new power usage record for the third time this month. High temperatures led to 64,805 MW of power usage between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. "That breaks last week's record of 63,830 MW (Aug. 10) by 975 MW, and last year's record by 1,405 MW, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas." - from Chron.com
Thanks to Boone Pickens and the rest of the wind energy producers in Texas, wind energy accounted for about 1 percent of that power usage, with a 680 MW output average during the peak hour. ERCOT has 9,317 MW of installed wind capacity, the highest of any state.
ERCOT assuredly breathed a sigh of relief after no major outages were reported during the peak hour, especially since electric power outages and interruptions cost the U.S. economy about $80 billion annually. But with records continuing to be set, one has to wonder what's going on with Smart Grid developments in Texas.
Smart Grid is essentially a combination of technology and resources to provide balanced generation with demand. During my first week in the power industry, Bill Strohecker, vice president of power sales for ABB, told me the purpose of Smart Grid is to "eliminate inefficiencies in generation, transmission and distribution."
In most cases, power is currently a one-way path. But what if, by charging your electric car, you could actually feed into the grid? Or perhaps you were one of the Texans contributing to the new power usage record yesterday. Let's say it was 3:30 p.m. in Midland, you were at work, and you realized that your thermostat was set to 71 degrees at home and didn't really need it that low. In a Smart Grid situation, you could log in and change your power preferences from your work computer.
Smart Grid opportunities like the aforentioned are popping up around Texas, and the entire nation. A product called the TXU Energy iThermostat is currently installed in 20,000 locations. Last week, TXU Energy announced that it is targeting the installation of 100,000 smart systems in homes and business by the end of 2012, which will include the installation of the iThermostat and the TXU Energy PowerMonitor.
Baltimore Gas and Electric was given the "yes" just yesterday to move forward on its Smart Grid program. These plans are great, but will customers be willing to pay the price?
In March, GE released the results of a smart grid survey of a cross section of 1,000 U.S. consumers. Nearly four of every five Americans (78 percent) familiar with the term Smart Grid said that they believe it would help reduce the number of power outages and restore power more quickly when outages do occur.
Yesterday, Texas hit a new power usage record for the third time this month. High temperatures led to 64,805 MW of power usage between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. "That breaks last week's record of 63,830 MW (Aug. 10) by 975 MW, and last year's record by 1,405 MW, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas." - from Chron.com
Thanks to Boone Pickens and the rest of the wind energy producers in Texas, wind energy accounted for about 1 percent of that power usage, with a 680 MW output average during the peak hour. ERCOT has 9,317 MW of installed wind capacity, the highest of any state.
ERCOT assuredly breathed a sigh of relief after no major outages were reported during the peak hour, especially since electric power outages and interruptions cost the U.S. economy about $80 billion annually. But with records continuing to be set, one has to wonder what's going on with Smart Grid developments in Texas.
Smart Grid is essentially a combination of technology and resources to provide balanced generation with demand. During my first week in the power industry, Bill Strohecker, vice president of power sales for ABB, told me the purpose of Smart Grid is to "eliminate inefficiencies in generation, transmission and distribution."
In most cases, power is currently a one-way path. But what if, by charging your electric car, you could actually feed into the grid? Or perhaps you were one of the Texans contributing to the new power usage record yesterday. Let's say it was 3:30 p.m. in Midland, you were at work, and you realized that your thermostat was set to 71 degrees at home and didn't really need it that low. In a Smart Grid situation, you could log in and change your power preferences from your work computer.
Smart Grid opportunities like the aforentioned are popping up around Texas, and the entire nation. A product called the TXU Energy iThermostat is currently installed in 20,000 locations. Last week, TXU Energy announced that it is targeting the installation of 100,000 smart systems in homes and business by the end of 2012, which will include the installation of the iThermostat and the TXU Energy PowerMonitor.
Baltimore Gas and Electric was given the "yes" just yesterday to move forward on its Smart Grid program. These plans are great, but will customers be willing to pay the price?
In March, GE released the results of a smart grid survey of a cross section of 1,000 U.S. consumers. Nearly four of every five Americans (78 percent) familiar with the term Smart Grid said that they believe it would help reduce the number of power outages and restore power more quickly when outages do occur.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Molten Salt Reserves (Holy Grail?) Lure Solar Producers
August 10, 2010-
While writing the market update story for the Sept/Oct issue of Renewable Energy World North America, I kept hearing things like:
"Whoever can figure out ways to store the sunlight is going to win. Storage is the game-changer technology." -Buck Martinez, senior director of solar development, Florida Power & Light
Because solar is so flighty (sadly, the sun always goes down at night, unless you're in the Arctic Circle at the right time of year), energy can only be produced during peak hours -- when the sun is shining its glorious beams.
But leave it to a rocket scientist to change that. Terry Murphy studied rocket propulsion at Purdue University, then landed a job at Rocketdyne. During his time there, he studied the Space Station's onboard power system that tracks the sun, manages consumption and stores energy. Now, he is translating his knowledge of the sun by developing a solar power tower technology for SolarReserve, a startup company formed by US Renewables Group, the renewable energy private equity firm. This technology promises to prolong the use of solar energy into the evening hours.
"Murphy says a solar power tower built in the American southwest could dispatch about 500 MWh annually. A 200 MW facility could have a cap ex roughly between $3,000 to $4,000 a kW, installed. That equates to an overall project investment of $600 to $700 million." -Renewable Energy World
It's no wonder this solar thermal development has been coined “the holy grail of renewable energy” by The New York Times. Molten salt reserves store solar power by focusing thousands of mirrors on millions of gallons of liquefied salt. SolarReserve’s technology uses ground-mounted heliostats, heat-concentrating towers, high operating temperatures and storage mechanisms to reflect sunlight. Heliostats reflect sunlight to receivers atop 553-foot towers. There the sunlight transfers heat to molten salt, warming the sodium and potassium mixture to 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit. It is then transferred to a storage tank where it loses no more than 1 degree a day.
“We have the ability to shift power generation. It doesn’t stop when the sun goes down,” Tom Georgis, vice president of development, told me in a phone interview.
So far, SolarReserve has been in a testing stage, but developments are underway for the solar market to determine if this technology will prove to be the holy grail.
SolarReserve's largest projects are:
1) The development of a 150-MW solar farm in the Sonoran Desert east of Palm Springs. The Rice Solar Energy Project will store seven hours’ worth of the sun’s energy and is anticipated to go online in October 2013.
2) A 100-MW solar energy project near the town of Tonopah, Nev., which will break ground at the end of 2010. In January, SolarReserve served a contract with Nevada largest utility, NV Energy, for this project, which marks the first time a U.S. utility has contracted for solar power tower technology utilizing molten salt storage. Potentially, this could be the first commercial installation that will be able to avoid intermittency problems like cloud cover, as well as the ability to provide power after the sun goes down.
Will SolarReserve be able to break through the barriers of nightfall, cloud cover, and such? For the next couple of years, the solar industry will be waiting in expectation to see the results of these two projects. Until then, the holy grail of solar continues to stay just out of reach.
While writing the market update story for the Sept/Oct issue of Renewable Energy World North America, I kept hearing things like:
"Whoever can figure out ways to store the sunlight is going to win. Storage is the game-changer technology." -Buck Martinez, senior director of solar development, Florida Power & Light
Because solar is so flighty (sadly, the sun always goes down at night, unless you're in the Arctic Circle at the right time of year), energy can only be produced during peak hours -- when the sun is shining its glorious beams.
But leave it to a rocket scientist to change that. Terry Murphy studied rocket propulsion at Purdue University, then landed a job at Rocketdyne. During his time there, he studied the Space Station's onboard power system that tracks the sun, manages consumption and stores energy. Now, he is translating his knowledge of the sun by developing a solar power tower technology for SolarReserve, a startup company formed by US Renewables Group, the renewable energy private equity firm. This technology promises to prolong the use of solar energy into the evening hours.
"Murphy says a solar power tower built in the American southwest could dispatch about 500 MWh annually. A 200 MW facility could have a cap ex roughly between $3,000 to $4,000 a kW, installed. That equates to an overall project investment of $600 to $700 million." -Renewable Energy World
It's no wonder this solar thermal development has been coined “the holy grail of renewable energy” by The New York Times. Molten salt reserves store solar power by focusing thousands of mirrors on millions of gallons of liquefied salt. SolarReserve’s technology uses ground-mounted heliostats, heat-concentrating towers, high operating temperatures and storage mechanisms to reflect sunlight. Heliostats reflect sunlight to receivers atop 553-foot towers. There the sunlight transfers heat to molten salt, warming the sodium and potassium mixture to 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit. It is then transferred to a storage tank where it loses no more than 1 degree a day.
“We have the ability to shift power generation. It doesn’t stop when the sun goes down,” Tom Georgis, vice president of development, told me in a phone interview.
So far, SolarReserve has been in a testing stage, but developments are underway for the solar market to determine if this technology will prove to be the holy grail.
SolarReserve's largest projects are:
1) The development of a 150-MW solar farm in the Sonoran Desert east of Palm Springs. The Rice Solar Energy Project will store seven hours’ worth of the sun’s energy and is anticipated to go online in October 2013.
2) A 100-MW solar energy project near the town of Tonopah, Nev., which will break ground at the end of 2010. In January, SolarReserve served a contract with Nevada largest utility, NV Energy, for this project, which marks the first time a U.S. utility has contracted for solar power tower technology utilizing molten salt storage. Potentially, this could be the first commercial installation that will be able to avoid intermittency problems like cloud cover, as well as the ability to provide power after the sun goes down.
Will SolarReserve be able to break through the barriers of nightfall, cloud cover, and such? For the next couple of years, the solar industry will be waiting in expectation to see the results of these two projects. Until then, the holy grail of solar continues to stay just out of reach.
Friday, August 6, 2010
DOE Loan Guarantee May Go To Teachers
August 6, 2010-
This week, the Senate gave final approval to a $26 billion package that will save states from having to lay off thousands of teachers and fund Medicaid. It's expected that the House will give the package its approval next week.
This package hits the renewables market hard, as part of the approved funds will be drawn from a $6 billion Department of Energy fund. This same fund was scavaged last year when the Senate cut $2 billion from it to give to the Cash for Clunkers program. Now, $1.5 billion more will be cut in order to help fund the $26 billion package for teacher salaries and Medicaid. This leaves the DOE fund at $2.5 billion.
I spoke today with Dan Adamson, vice president of government affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). He said solar will most likely be more affected than other renewables by this overturn.
"Solar has more applications for loan guarantees than any technology, so it’s likely to really hit solar in a negative way," Adamson said.
In a letter Adamson sent to senators urging to vote against the cut, he said that taking from the fund would "jeopardize $15 to $20 billion of private investment in pollution-free energy generation and domestic manufacturing."
On a positive note for the solar industry, Adamson said the Treasury Grant Program, which is due to expire at the end of this year, has a good chance of being extended. The Treasury Grant Program is a cash grant that may be taken in lieu of the federal business energy investment tax credit (ITC), providing a 30 percent incentive to property that is part of a qualified facility, fuel cell property, solar property, or small wind property.
"That’s been our top issue in our lobbying from an installer to a developer to a manufacturer because of the support it provides, and it has bi-partisan support. If Congress passes some kind of an energy tax bill, we’ll be able to get the energy grant bill extended."
This week, the Senate gave final approval to a $26 billion package that will save states from having to lay off thousands of teachers and fund Medicaid. It's expected that the House will give the package its approval next week.
This package hits the renewables market hard, as part of the approved funds will be drawn from a $6 billion Department of Energy fund. This same fund was scavaged last year when the Senate cut $2 billion from it to give to the Cash for Clunkers program. Now, $1.5 billion more will be cut in order to help fund the $26 billion package for teacher salaries and Medicaid. This leaves the DOE fund at $2.5 billion.
I spoke today with Dan Adamson, vice president of government affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). He said solar will most likely be more affected than other renewables by this overturn.
"Solar has more applications for loan guarantees than any technology, so it’s likely to really hit solar in a negative way," Adamson said.
In a letter Adamson sent to senators urging to vote against the cut, he said that taking from the fund would "jeopardize $15 to $20 billion of private investment in pollution-free energy generation and domestic manufacturing."
On a positive note for the solar industry, Adamson said the Treasury Grant Program, which is due to expire at the end of this year, has a good chance of being extended. The Treasury Grant Program is a cash grant that may be taken in lieu of the federal business energy investment tax credit (ITC), providing a 30 percent incentive to property that is part of a qualified facility, fuel cell property, solar property, or small wind property.
"That’s been our top issue in our lobbying from an installer to a developer to a manufacturer because of the support it provides, and it has bi-partisan support. If Congress passes some kind of an energy tax bill, we’ll be able to get the energy grant bill extended."
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