Hydropower Highlighted at POWER-GEN International

It has become a regular feature at POWER-GEN International.

Hydropower and its role in America’s plan to boost the use of renewable energy was the subject of much discussion this week in Orlando, Fla., the site of POWER-GEN International 2010.

Specifically, experts highlighted the need to build more pumped-storage hydro projects in the U.S. to maintain a reliable grid. The need stems from the increasing use of wind and solar power, intermittent sources of energy that will require reliable backup generation.

Pumped-storage projects provide grid-scale reliability. Without more pumped-storage, it will become increasingly difficult to balance load on a grid connected to increasing amounts of wind and solar power, said Rick Miller, senior vice president of the Hydropower Division at HDR/DTA.

“Reinvigorating pumped storage in this country is critical if we’re going to be successful in integrating and expanding our variable energy resources,” Miller said during a panel discussion on hydropower technologies.

Europe has done a better job of incorporating pumped storage in their plans to boost the use of wind and solar power, Miller said.

“They’ve integrated storage as a part of their overall integrated resource plan,” Miller said. “We haven’t done that in this country. We only have energy only.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is considering about 60 preliminary permits for the construction of pumped-storage facilities in the U.S. However, those projects may never be built because of an uncertain market and reluctant lenders, Miller said.

“There’s a lot of capital out there ready to be loaned,” he said.

The problem is, the development of a pumped-storage facility is a 10-year process, from concept to construction, Miller explained.

“There is not 10-year ahead market and that’s why we can’t get them financed,” he said.

For more information about hydropower technologies and trends, be sure to read the January issue of Hydro Review magazine and visit www.HydroWorld.com.

Russell Ray is senior associate editor of Hydro Review magazine. Russell has 11 years experience as an energy journalist, covering the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma and the growth of solar and nuclear power in Florida. He served eight years as the energy reporter for the Tulsa World. He held the same position at the Tampa Tribune for two and a half years before joining Hydro Review in 2009. 

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Leading Developers Continue Building Large PV Projects

The first came from SunEdison, which broke ground on a 54-MW plant in New Mexico. This comes weeks after completing a 70-MW project in Italy. The 5-site power plant, which is being built by SunEdison and the utility Xcel Energy, should be connected to the grid by the end of next year.

The companies expect the 54 MW project will generate more than 2 million MWh of electricity over a twenty year period.

The second was from SunPower Corp., which closed a first-of-a-kind solar bond with two European banks to finance the completed expansion of a project in Italy from 44 MW to 72 MW. SunPower says the project will be able to produce about 140 GWh of electricity per year when fully complete.

The others were in Ontario, where NextEra Energy Resources agreed to purchase 40-MW worth of projects developed by First Solar. The projects will be split up into four 10-MW developments with 172,000 First Solar cadmium-telluride thin film panels at each site. All the systems should be operational by the end of next year.

Also in Ontario, Canadian Solar and SkyPower Limited signed an EPC agreement to build two solar projects totaling 18.5 MW of capacity using Canadian Solar modules. The construction of both projects should be done by mid-2011. Together, they are expected to generate approximately 19 million KWh in their first full year of operation and almost 400 million kWh total over the next 20 years.

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Growth Energy Responds to Forbes Magazine

For the third time in nine days, Forbes Magazine has published a misleading and negative editorial about the only viable, affordable, high-tech alternative to oil today: American ethanol.

Not surprisingly, while these editorials fail to reference a single alternative to ethanol, they also gloss over the truth of what industry is the biggest fuel recipient of taxpayer dollars in the United States: oil.

At Growth Energy, we work to educate the press, opinion makers and the general public about the benefits of domestic ethanol. American ethanol, as anyone who is paying attention knows, strengthens our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, helps our economy by creating U.S. jobs, and helps clean the environment because grain ethanol is at least 59 percent cleaner than conventional gasoline.

We have sent two letters to the editor of Forbes in an effort to set the record straight with the facts about domestic, renewable ethanol. Growth Energy has yet to hear back on whether they will run our letters – and so we have decided to publish our responses on our blog for the public to read.

Below are our original letters to Forbes.

Response # 1:

December 6, 2010

Dear Editor,

Henry Miller’s recent commentary suggests that former Vice President Gore’s support for ethanol was a “whopper” of a mistake (Gore, Gobbledygook and Global Warming, Dec. 6). But the real whopper here is Miller’s omission of the facts.

First, the concept of “food vs. fuel” is nothing more than a myth perpetuated by vested interests, with no basis in fact, that has been dispelled by numerous objective economic analyses, including a recent World Bank paper which proves that the skyrocketing grocery bills of two years ago were not caused by ethanol, but rather, by rampant market speculation and record fossil fuel prices.

USDA chief economist Joseph Glauber confirmed as such when he testified before the U.S. Senate, stating that ethanol demand had, at most, a “moderate” impact on food prices.

Second, not one kernel of food fit for humans goes to ethanol production. The corn used to make ethanol in this country is field corn. In fact, a co-product of ethanol production are the Dried Distiller’s Grains which go right back into the food chain in the form of a high-quality livestock feeds. So, ethanol production does not take food away from people.

Finally, Mr. Miller conveniently omits the only reason that the “food vs. fuel” rhetoric gained traction with the general public: a multi-million dollar misinformation campaign waged by the Grocery Manufacturers Association with one of Washington, D.C.’s premier public relations agencies, Glover Park.

Facts are facts. And there is no credible “food versus fuel” debate, except in the minds of Big Food and Big Oil.

Sincerely,

Tom Buis
CEO Of Growth Energy

Response # 2

December 9, 2010

Dear Editor,

If Matt Kibbe wants to do away with “runaway spending” (Let Ethanol Subsidies Expire For Good, Dec. 9) let’s include Big Oil.

Globally, more than $280 billion in taxpayer dollars are given to Big Oil and other fossil fuel producers every year in the form of subsidies and other financial incentives, according to recent DTN and World Energy Outlook analyses, not factoring in the estimated $50 billion in U.S. military spending to protect the shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf.

The main reason the ethanol industry needs government support today is because we are denied access to all but ten percent of the fuel market which is tightly controlled by the oil industry. Growth Energy’s Fueling Freedom plan would redirect tax credits to build out a national ethanol infrastructure including “blender pumps” and “flex-fuel” vehicles, to allow access to fair and open market.

Every year we pay $300 billion annually – the equivalent of a thousand-dollar-a-person tax—to foreign countries for oil. Increasing the production of ethanol that is produced right here in America will reduce the role that foreign oil plays in our economy and in our national security. Every gallon of clean burning ethanol that we produce in this country decreases the demand for foreign oil, keeps our hard-earned money here at home and helps create good jobs that can’t be shipped overseas.

Ethanol is 59 percent cleaner than gasoline, and the latest studies from the United States Department of Agriculture show that ethanol is more energy efficient to produce than conventional gasoline. Furthermore, for those repeating that disproven “food v. fuel” fiction, I can only urge them to look at the series of academic, economic and government studies, including a recent World Bank study, that have all debunked this myth. Wall Street speculators, high oil prices and the costs of manufacturing, packaging and transportation all have far more impact than ethanol on the grocery prices that everyday Americans pay.

Ethanol is the only available, affordable alternative to oil today and in a truly open market, ethanol can compete – and beat – foreign oil. Extending the current ethanol incentives today will provide certainty in the market and give Congress the opportunity to consider longer term reforms, like our Fueling Freedom Plan, next year. As a result, consumers would have real choices. Our air would be cleaner. Our prosperity would be enhanced. And our security would be strengthened.

Sincerely,

Tom Buis
CEO Of Growth Energy

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Consumer Markets Will Lead the Way to a Solar-Powered Future

Before the dawn of the PC era, electronics companies were dependent on do-it-yourself enthusiasts and high-end consumers looking for kicks.

That's the way markets work. The bottom of the “s” curve is littered with false starts, with ideas that look crazy in retrospect, but which turn-on a few and lead to better things.

Today, that means solar chargers. Prices keep coming down, and capabilities keep going up.  The best news is that while solar chargers today only support low levels of power, increasing numbers of electronic components only need small amounts of power. So the utility of such devices is increasing exponentially.

Most American consumers just plug in when our iPhones need a charge. Most solar charger buyers right now are people who are vacationing off the grid but who want to bring their gadgets with them.

Given these limits, the preferred output is USB. Smart phones often support USB for charging. They're trickle-chargers, as this press release from one such maker, SunTactics, makes clear. Many older units include an internal battery that charges from the solar panel. For 2010 two watts was the norm for output. Newer units are now being introduced at 5 watts.

Beyond campers who want to keep their iPhones and GPS devices charged when out in the woods, there is also a market in the developing world, where the grid does not exist. Things like the Solar Ear – a specialized device for recharging hearing aids – are starting to gain traction.

What comes next? As was true 40 years ago, military necessity is leading the way. The U.S. Army is evaluating things like the PowerShade, a collection of thin-film cells sewn into a command tent. The most powerful of these solutions, dubbed the TEMPER-Fly, is rated at 750 watts of output. The company which makes it, the Tactical Solar unit of Energy Technologies Inc., Mansfield, Ohio, is a great place to bookmark for future developments. Their most powerful unit weighs 450 pounds and currently tops out at 2 kilowatts.

There will be more, which will weigh less, cost less, and deliver more power, by this time next year.

Of course, 2 kilowatts is not a ton of power. It's a laptop, a low-powered radio, maybe a few of them at the high end. But remember, this is 1970 in renewable energy time, and since we have the Internet all around us, things could move even faster this time than they did then.

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Why Tax Credits Make Lousy Renewable Energy Policy

This is part of a series of posts on distributed renewable energy that will be posted to Renewable Energy World. It originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's New Rules Project.

For two years, solar and wind energy producers seeking federal incentives have been able to take cash grants in lieu of tax credits.  The stimulus act program helped keep the renewable energy industry afloat as the credit crunch and economic downturn dried up the market for reselling tax credits to banks and other investors with large tax bills.

The cash grant program is set to sunset at the end of this year, but solar and wind energy advocates are hoping it will be extended, for good reason:

In fact, the tax credits were always an awkward tool, some argue. Rhone Resch, the head of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said that many of the companies doing the installations were not making a profit either, so these tax credits were sold as “tax equity,” a secondary market, at a loss of 30 to 50 cents on the dollar to the seller. [emphasis added]

The tax credits were worth 30% of a project's value, so the transaction costs of reselling the credits meant that renewable energy projects without sufficient internal tax liability were 13 to 21% more expensive than projects that could use the credits themselves.

This is dumb policy.  Ratepayers pay a higher price for renewable energy because incentives filter through the tax code instead of the general fund.

But the cash grant v. tax credit issue is just one symptom of a larger disease affecting American renewable energy policy.  Transaction costs are increasing the cost of renewable energy in nearly every state with a renewable portfolio standard (RPS).

Under most state RPS policies, utilities put out requests for proposal to acquire renewable energy to meet the state mandates.  These solicitations attract thousands of developers who all have to front their project development costs.  But in California, for example, 90% of projects don't make the utilities' shortlist for the solicitation, stranding over $100 million in development costs.

Some of those projects may eventually get online, but most of that money is flushed because the U.S. prefers to let utilities act as gatekeepers to clean energy rather than open the market to any potential producer. It's not the only way.

There's a renewable energy policy that's responsible for 75% of the world's solar and half its wind power.  It has the lowest transaction costs because there's no fiddling with the tax code and no parasitic costs from auctions or solicitations.  Instead, utilities are required to interconnect and take the power from any developed renewable energy project, and to provide a price sufficient to provide a reasonable return on investment (just like the utilities enjoy in rate regulated states).

The policy is funded entirely through the electricity system, so renewable energy doesn't have to compete with other budget priorities.

It's called a feed-in tariff.

The U.S. can extend the cash grant program, but it merely treats a symptom of the disease.  A better policy awaits.

Contact John Farrell at jfarrell@ilsr.org, find more content at energyselfreliantstates.org or follow @johnffarrell on Twitter

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Unraveling Plant Cell-Wall Construction for Biofuels Research

In a paper published the week of December 13, 2010, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers describe details of how precursors to lignin, one important cell-wall component, are transported across cellular membranes prior to linking up. The key finding, that the process requires a class of energy-dependent transporter molecules, may provide a “chink in the armor” that opens a way to alter plants’ lignin content.

“Being able to manipulate lignin biosynthesis would have a great influence on our ability to produce renewable biofuels from plant cellulosic feedstocks, and could also have a large effect on many other agricultural and industrial processes, such as the production of paper and more digestible foods for grazing animals,” said lead author Chang-Jun Liu, a Brookhaven biologist.

Prior to cell-wall construction, lignin precursors known as monolignols are made in the cell’s interior cytoplasm. Some precursors may be sequestered in internal vacuoles for storage, while some move out of the cell to link up and form the lignin component of the cell wall — a protective and supportive barrier around the cell. In both cases, the precursors move across a membrane, either out of the cell or into the vacuole. But no one was certain how the process occurred — whether by simple diffusion or via some active transport mechanism.

The Brookhaven team unraveled the mystery by isolating portions of cellular and vacuolar membrane from Arabidopsis and poplar plants, making them into closed vesicles that resemble bubbles, and mixing in pure monolignols and ones that have been chemically modified to form monolignol glucosides, which are commonly observed in some plants. They then monitored which type and how much of each precursor moved across the two kinds of membranes and into the vesicles under a range of conditions, including in the presence of inhibitors for different kinds of transport molecules.

The range of assays revealed that pure monolignols move across the cellular membrane while monolignol glucosides move preferentially into vacuoles. But most importantly, very little of either precursor would move across either type of membrane without the addition of ATP, the molecular “currency” for energy in cells.

“ATP is the energy molecule that is well known for providing the driving force for a group of transporters called ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters on cell membranes,” Liu said.

To prove the point, adding an agent that specifically inhibits ABC transporters completely blocked uptake of lignin precursors by both types of membrane vesicles.

With these experiments and additional evidence, Liu and his colleagues demonstrated that ABC-like transporters on cell membranes are responsible for the transport of lignin precursors.

Now that the scientists have identified a class of transporters likely involved in sequestering and transporting lignin’s building blocks, they’ll pursue detailed studies to identify exactly which members of the class are involved.

“If we can identify those particular transporters we might be able to control their expression to reduce the precursor deposited into the cell wall, and thus lower the cell-wall content of lignin —or, selectively control the particular type of precursor deposited to change lignin composition and produce more easily cleavable biopolymers,” Liu said.

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Power Engineering Names Renewable Project of the Year

Best Renewable/Sustainable Projects

Tekeze Hydropower Project

The Tekeze Hydropower project in Ethiopia, located on the Tekeze River, a tributary of the Nile, is the Project of the Year for renewable/sustainable projects. The $350 million project, funded by the government of Ethiopia and owned by Ethiopian Electric Power Corp., adds 40 percent more electric capacity to the country and was the largest public works project in Ethiopia’s history at the time of construction. Due to the lack of natural resources and the cost of imported fuels, power generation in Ethiopia comes primarily from hydroelectric sources.

The Tekeze Hydropower project is the tallest arch dam in Africa at 188 meters. The 300 MW facility includes a double curvature concrete arch dam, a method of design that minimizes the amount of concrete used. It created a reservoir 70 kilometers in length. An underground powerhouse containing four 75 MW Francis Turbines sits 500 meters downstream of the dam and is fed by a 75-meter-high intake structure connected by a 500-meter-long concrete-lined power tunnel. A 230 kV double-circuit transmission line 105 kilometers long was constructed through mountainous terrain to connect to the Ethiopian national grid.

The project’s beginnings date back to 1995 when the Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources conducted a study identifying the site as one of two preferred dam sites for hydropower development. MWH joined the project in 1998 and made modifications to an existing design for the dam, powerhouse and tunnel system, resulting in cost savings.

A multi-stage impoundment approach was implemented during construction, which allowed the river diversion to be closed in May 2007, nearly two years prior to dam completion. This allowed for more than 3 billion m3 of water to be retained, advancing generation by more than one full year. The value of the water captured via early impoundment was worth approximately $40 million. In addition to power generation, the Tekeze dam enables regulation of river flow, allowing downstream communities year-round access to the water supply.

A 10-year 2000m3/sec flood on Aug. 9, 2006 was an unexpected test for the dam. The dam proved its ability as a gravity structure and no damage was incurred to any of the permanent structures.

Local community infrastructure was improved as a result of the project, including construction of more than 40 kilometers of roads and installation of the first communications links from the area to the outside world. Also as a result of the project, education was improved in the area as the wife of the MWH chief design engineer spearheaded efforts to build a new school near the village of Seboko. The school was financed by contributions from engineers, contractors and staff working on the project, local residents and a supportive local government.

On-the-job training was also provided to locally-hired employees. Ethiopian Electric Power Corp. implemented programs to provide education and training to local workers. Programs included education to combat AIDS, malaria and other safety, health and welfare issues affecting the local community.

Honorable Mentions

Canoe Creek Hydroelectric Project

Canoe Creek Hydro is a 5.5 MW run-of-river hydroelectric facility on Vancouver Island that provides power to a remote community on the island and helping the island become less reliant on mainland power. The facility is owned and operated by the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and located in the heart of the Nation’s Tribal Parkland. The Barkley Project Group Ltd., along with Amnis Engineering and Hazelwood Construction One, worked with Vitaulic, a manufacturer of mechanical pipe joining solutions, to develop Canoe Creek. Construction started in May 2009 and ended in May 2010. The plant went into service in June.

Canoe Creek Hydro operates by diverting stream flow into a penstock at a high elevation – up to 84 percent grade – intake. This made construction a challenge, as did the facility’s location in the Pacific Rim Rainforest, where annual precipitation is amongst the heaviest in the world, particularly in the winter months when construction took place.

Constructing the 4-km-long penstock line in these conditions using welding techniques would have proven difficult. Instead of using mechanical welding on the penstock, the companies used mechanical couplings. In the field, the couplings proved advantageous in many ways. For example, couplings could be installed in any weather condition with no special requirements. Couplings also reduced the amount of excavation, bell holing and dewatering that would be common with welding.

Couplings also improved site safety. As the pipe was already on site, Hazelwood grooved and re-coated the pipe prior to sending it up the single-lane logging road for assembly. In addition, the replacement of welding with mechanical joints allowed for a reduction in the number of laborers required on the job site. Canoe Creek also employed local laborers.

Environmental benefits were also gained by replacing welded joints with mechanical joints. Welding one kilometer of straight-run 36-inch pipe produces about 40,338 kg of CO2 emissions using a diesel-powered machine and 9,463 kg of CO2 emissions using an electric-powered machine. Grooving and coupling that same run of pipe produces 62 kg of CO2 emissions. The use of couplings also reduced the amount of x-raying required on site, reducing radiation emission. PM, CO2 and radiation were reduced, as well as electrical energy use.

Biogas facility owned by PurposeEnergy, Inc.

This biogas facility project at the Magic Hat Brewery in South Burlington, Vt. allows the owner, PurposeEnergy Inc., to use organic waste streams and generate biogas. The biogas is then used by the brewery’s steam boilers and/or PurposeEnergy’s cogeneration plant. In mid-2008, Pizzagalli Construction Co. was selected as the design/build partner for this $3.4 million project at New England’s largest craft brewery. This brewery waste recovery system was developed by CEO and founder of Purpose Energy, Eric Fitch.

Underground process piping, stone aggregate piling for the digester, structural excavation and backfill and all of the concrete work began in December 2009. A 1,600 square foot mechanical building was built and a digester tank was installed. The piping process was completed by May 2010 and the facility began operations in June 2010.

PurposeEnergy’s Biphase Orbicular Biodigester was designed for brewery by-products and enables the conversion of high solids content brewery waste into carbon neutral, renewable biogas. This system is also designed to utilize the waste heat from the generator’s exhaust, coolant and engine oil to heat the digester and preheat the water used in the brewing process.

The PurposeEnergy project has brought many benefits to the facility and environment. By diverting the waste stream created during the brewing process, the brewery’s operating costs have been reduced as Magic Hat Brewery no longer needs to pay for waste treatment surcharges, thereby reducing traffic, noise and air pollution that would result from the transportation of the waste. In addition, the use of this technology creates a clean, carbon neutral energy source that decreases the effects of greenhouse gases on the environment.

To read which coal-fired, gas-fired and nuclear projects of the year Power Engineering named, read the full article here.

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