Much light, little heat efficiency

Elisa WoodBy Elisa Wood
January 26, 2012

 

Energy efficiency in the US is much light and little heat – literally.  Government policy pays a great deal of attention to saving electricity, but focuses little on the thermal energy we waste.

 

“Policy is electricity-centric in the US. Unless you are making kilowatts, the most efficient investments are off the radar,” said Rob Thornton, president of the International District Energy Association (IDEA), who I recently interviewed while writing this year’s edition of Pennwell’s US Guide to Combined Heat and Power Companies.

 

We throw away a lot of the heat. Power plants, for example, create heat as a byproduct of generation. Rather than reusing this thermal energy, we often let it dissipate into the air. As a result, we waste more energy than Japan uses for everything, according to Amory Lovins, author of “Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era.”

 

There is good news, however. Thornton and others I interviewed see a growing change in Washington’s attitude about combined heat and power (CHP), district energy, and other efficient methods of using thermal energy. Movers and shakers are becoming more aware of these energy alternatives. In addition, states are increasingly incorporating heat efficiency into clean energy portfolio standards.

 

“Finally, after all of these years, combined heat and power has become a hot topic in the political community,” said R. Neal Elliott, associate director for research at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

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January 26, 2012 | | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

CHP: Not the Brad and Jen of energy, but….

Elisa WoodBy Elisa Wood
September 28, 2011

I hesitate to start this blog with the words “combined heat and power.”  You might stop reading.

Okay, so it’s not the Brad and Jen of energy. (That would be solar and wind.) But what it lacks in glamour, it makes up for in constancy and results. It’s an old guy, been around for about a century. And while its name might not sound green, it offers an extraordinarily efficient way to energize buildings.

About once a year, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy issues findings that raise the profile of combined heat and power, or CHP, for at least a couple of days.

Why bother? Because despite its ponderous name, CHP is a “Wow” approach to energy, one that people should talk about at parties as much as they do solar these days.

CHP units, often used at universities, hospitals and factories, put to good use the waste heat created in producing electricity. Usually, we just let this heat vanish into the sky. But CHP, a form of distributed generation, reuses the byproduct to heat and cool buildings or assist in industrial processes. CHP can produce energy twice as efficiently as a typical centralized power plant because it provides two energy sources from one fuel. We know it works because, as ACEEE points out, CHP “has been cleanly and quietly providing over 12% of U.S. electricity.”

If it’s so good, why don’t we use more of it? The US is trying – at least some areas of the country.

“CHP markets differ considerably among states,” said Anna Chittum, ACEEE senior policy analyst and lead author of ACEEE’s September 28 report ‘Challenges Facing Combined Heat and Power Today: A State-by-State Assessment.’

Do you live in a pro-CHP state? Not if you’re in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

You do, if you’re in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.

(You can find an analysis of your state’s CHP markets and policies here.)

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September 28, 2011 | | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

Energy waste the size of Japan

By Elisa Wood

July 22, 2010

Here is a startling fact: US power plants waste more energy than many countries use, including advanced economies like that of Japan. The wasted energy is in the form of heat thrown off when power plants produce electricity.

This is one of the points being brought to light by the International District Energy Association (IDEA), as it promotes new federal incentives for heat efficiency.

While the US is focusing on cleaning up its electricity supply, it tends to ignore heat energy, even though it represents 31% of the energy we use, particularly to heat and cool buildings, warm water, and manufacture products.

IDEA is a group that promotes district energy and cogeneration (also called combined heat and power). These systems recycle heat waste for productive purposes. For example, a cogeneration plant might provide electricity to the grid and then recycle the wasted heat from the system into steam for use by a nearby factory. District energy systems often incorporate cogeneration. They supply water or steam to multiple buildings for space heating, domestic hot water, air conditioning and industrial processes.

IDEA, along with several environmental and efficiency groups, want Congress to approve a bill that will make available to heat the kind of incentives now given to clean forms of electricity. To that end, they are backing the Thermal Renewable Energy and Efficiency Act (S.3636), a bipartisan effort introduced by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.)

The bill would create federal production tax incentives for heat energy, much like those that have spurred the wind and solar industries in the US. It also would expand tax-exempt bonds for the systems and reauthorize and broaden certain grants.

“The economic and environmental costs of the BP Gulf disaster are yet to be tallied, and the hurdles to comprehensive climate legislation are daunting. That’s why we must act now to implement policies that reduce fossil fuel consumption using proven clean technologies like district energy and combined heat and power,” said Rob Thornton, IDEA president, in a July 22 letter to US Senate leaders.

With today’s introduction of a smart grid, we are seeing many new systems and gadgets that promise energy savings. Industry insiders understandably eye them with skepticism; many of these technologies are untried. However, cogeneration and district energy are old ideas, decades old, and proven many times over. The US already has about 2,900 district energy systems and about 3,500 cogeneration plants. Still cogeneration represents only 8% to 9% of US electric capacity.

Cogeneration and district energy face the same problem as other capital intensive projects today. High upfront costs and reticent lenders make it hard to develop new projects.

Incentives do help spur these technologies. When the state of Connecticut began offering grants for cogeneration a few years ago, businesses and institutions jumped at the opportunity and quickly added installations totaling several hundred megawatts.

IDEA wants the Senate to incorporate heat energy incentives into any energy legislation that might pass this year. But it appears increasingly unlikely that a major energy bill will make it through Congress. The US may continue to throw away several countries worth of energy for some time.

Visit www.realenergywriters.com to pick up a free Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

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July 23, 2010 | | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »

What the heck is a smart grid anyway?

By Elisa Wood

August 27, 2009

You know the old adage, ‘Never talk about politics or religion in polite company’? I’m beginning to think we need to add a third restraint, one against debate over the meaning of smart grid.

Okay, it’s not exactly a dinnertime topic. But I’ve discovered in gatherings of energy nerds (I’m one), discussion can become fairly heated over what constitutes “smart grid.”

On the one side are the engineering purists who stick to what I believe was an early definition: automated two-way communication on the grid by way of digital technology. At some point this came to widely include a smart meter that lets your utility ‘talk’ to your house and your house talk back.

On the other extreme, are those that seem to use the term to describe any grid innovation, particularly green or energy efficient technologies. It doesn’t even have to be a new technology. Combined heat and power is sometimes included in the smart club and it is more than 100 years old. (But then, just because something is old, doesn’t mean it’s not smart.)

Sometimes solar panels are described as smart. (They become stupid on the rare occasion when they leak.) And demand response, probably rightly so, has secured its position as part of the wired Mensa club. Integrating wind energy into the transmission system is often cited as a reason we need a smart grid.

It seems important that the industry stop fumbling with this definition. As Jesse Berst said in an excellent article, published March 5, 2009, SmartGridNews.com: “Can you imagine if an automobile CEO began his bailout plea with “I don’t really know what an automobile is, but can I have $20 billion please?” Or if the CEO of CitiGroup began a speech with: “I don’t really know what a bank is, but…” http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/commentary/Why_the_Smart_Grid_Industry_Can_t_Talk_the_Talk_and_What_to_Do_About_It-530.html.

Here are a few definitions of smart grid that show the range of thinking. Please let me know what you think and post yours as well. Virtual table pounding acceptable; no name calling please!

*“A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency.” Wikipedia

*“In terms of transmission, a smart grid makes it easier to deliver alternative energy sources like wind and solar from rural installations to city centers.” Ariel Schwartz, http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/04/30/energy-101-what-is-a-smart-grid/

*“Smart grid is a transformation. Just as the Internet revolutionized communication; the smart grid will transform how we produce energy, how we transport energy, how we store energy and how we use energy.” GridWise Alliance

*“The Smart Grid isn’t a thing but rather a vision and to be complete, that vision must be expressed from various perspectives – its values, its characteristics, and the milestones for achieving it.” Joe Miller http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/commentary/What_Is_the_Smart_Grid-567.html

*“Smart grid is the new big thing in the world of green…” http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/amsterdam-smart-grid-pilot-project-ibm-cisco.php

*“While many conversations about the Smart Grid center on communications and metering technologies, the actual definition of Smart Grid is much broader and encompasses grid infrastructure — the brawn as well as the brains.” American Superconductor.

*“Over the past twelve months, Smart Grid has matured from a marketing buzzword to an industry strategy, with everyone from electric utility providers, to consulting and solution firms, to our country’s executive and legislative leaders referencing it as a key strategy for any number of objectives. Experts seem to agree that the Smart Grid is past the tipping point; however, agreement on strategy doesn’t necessarily constitute an agreement on deployment tactics.” http://www.smartgridroadshow.com/2/

Visit Elisa Wood at http://www.realenergywriters.com/ and pick up her free Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter

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August 27, 2009 | | Tags: , , | 1 Comment »

Is waste heat the silver bullet?

By Elisa Wood

August 13, 2009

The energy industry tends to get stuck on certain words. Silver bullet is one of them. Insiders and policymakers often like to say there is no silver bullet to fix US energy woes. We need a portfolio of solutions – renewables, efficiency, smart grid, transmission expansion, coal sequestration, etc.

That may be true, but Tom Casten begs to differ. Casten is a bit of a rock star in the field of decentralized power. He has more than 30 years in the business and leadership positions in key organizations. It’s not unusual to see him quoted on energy not only in the trade press, but also in magazines like Forbes. So folks looking at alternatives tend to listen to him.

“I think there is a silver bullet, and I think it is all about the way the world makes power,” he said at the International District Energy Association conference in June. (Listen to his presentation at www.districtenergy.org.)

Or rather, it’s about the way the world wastes energy.

“Generation inefficiency is the elephant in the room. Nobody talks about. We put all kinds of policies into doing other things and ignoring that because most of industry makes money on this inefficiency,” he said.

The inefficiency he describes is the waste heat that power plants emit. It accounts for about two-thirds of plant fuel use, and it ends up floating into the sky unused. Weirdly, we know how to solve this problem, we have for decades – through combined heat and power plant. These plants marshal the waste heat and pipe it, so that it can be used for other purposes, such as steam energy for a college campus or an industrial process.

We use combined heat and power to generate only about 80,000 MW, about 9 percent of US total electric capacity. Of course, combined heat and power doesn’t make sense in all circumstances.  But an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study released in December says the US could increase combined heat and power to 20% of capacity.  Some Europeans countries have achieved this level –and they lack the large number of factories found in the US that can use the waste heat.

ORNL says it would take some regulatory tweaking to move the market to 20%. But one thing is for certain, there is no lack of interest in combined heat and power these days. The US Department of Energy recently offered $156 million in grant money for combined heat and power projects. By the time bids closed in mid-July, the DOE had received 359 applications for projects totaling $9.4 billion, according to Rob Thornton, IDEA president. “We knew it was going to be oversubscribed, but we never envisioned it being a 25 to 1 ratio,” he said.

Whether waste energy will emerge as the silver bullet remains to be seen, but clearly there is no longer a shortage of those aiming this bullet toward its target, the elusive werewolf of inefficient energy.

Visit Elisa Wood at www.realenergywriters.com and pick up her free Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter

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August 13, 2009 | | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »
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