IOL Co-Gen; Super Battery
Imperial Oil Ltd. is to build a cogeneration plant as part of a $2bn expansion of its flagship Cold Lake oil sands project. Canada’s largest oil company will include the 170MW cogeneration plant to produce steam and electricity and a facility to process the bitumen produced at the site.
A super-battery that produces enough electricity to power nearly 1,400 homes, the Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell has been producing clean electricity at a “steady rate” for weeks at a SolVin plant part-owned by Germany’s BASF in Antwerp. The fuel cell converts the chemical energy from hydrogen into clean electricity through an electrochemical reaction with oxygen, and “has generated over 500 MWh in about 800 hours of operation.
SolarCity, a national leader in clean energy services, is expanding to Connecticut to make it possible for many homeowners and businesses to install solar panels for free and pay less for solar electricity than they pay for utility power. SolarCity is expanding to Connecticut in large part due to the efforts of the state–through programs at Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to promote, develop and invest in clean energy and energy efficiency projects.
Across the United States and Canada, utility companies are forcing the installation of the Smart Meter, a digital device to monitor electric, gas and water consumption, upon a seriously uninformed public. In areas where the meters are located outside the house, they are installed without the owner’s knowledge. Once installed, these meters emit dangerous carcinogenic electromagnetic field radiation, and they also invade our privacy in that they monitor all electricity use in the household. Most importantly, in May 2011, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified EMF radiation as a Group 2B potential carcinogen, along with lead, DDT and chloroform.
Read MoreSundance#5 Online; BC Slow With Wind Power; Ontario Over Supply May Shut Nukes
B.C., predisposed to both massive and small-scale hydro-electric power development, has been one of the world’s laggards in terms of wind energy. Independent power producers say B.C. has tremendous potential for wind power development – but so far, BC Hydro’s preference has been for small-scale hydro projects in the private sector, as well as promotion of its $8-billion Site C hydro megaproject. BC Hydro will lower the electricity supply targets for independent power producers, which apparently means less aggressive expansion of renew-able energy development. The emergence of technology to exploit vast new natural gas resources in the northeast, lucrative Asian markets for LNG, and a series of large-scale mine development opportunities in the northwest are forcing the province to rethink its strategy of supporting incremental expansion of green electricity supply for industry. You could get a gas generation plant operational in three or four years in a sympathetic regulatory climate, compared to what appears to be a decade-long effort to bring the Site C hydro project on-grid. TransAlta projects the cost of wind will drop in Alberta from about $80/MWh today to less than $65 by 2030, thanks to technology refinements and demand growth versus $73 to $67 for gas-fired generation over the same period of time.
For at least eight hours Monday, Ontario is once again forecast to produce more electricity than it consumes, and the recurring glut has one top energy executive warning of temporary nuclear power plant shutdowns. The problem is, unlike wind and some other forms of power production, nuclear reactors can’t easily be turned off when demand for electricity drops. Returning them to full operating status can take two to four days and sometimes longer, making nuclear the least flexible portion of the supply mix at a time when demand is increasingly finicky.
Read MoreHR Milner Online; MIT Develops Photonic Crystals
HR Milner came back online at 03:53 this morning.
Boston-based independent power producer Atlantic Power Corporation invested $23 million in Canadian Hills Wind, L.L.C., which owns a 298.45MW wind farm in Oklahoma. Atlantic Power now owns 51% of Canadian Hills Wind. The Canadian Hills Wind project is in the late stages of development under builder Apex Wind Energy Holdings, L.L.C. The news follows Southwestern Electric Power Company’s signing of a 20-year power purchase agreement to get electricity from Canadian Hills last week. A similar P.P.A. is currently in negotiation for the remaining 48 MW, Atlantic Power said. Commercial operation is expected in November 2012.
Researchers at MIT have developed photonic crystals that, in as little as two years, could enable the use of hydrocarbon and nuclear reactors in portable electronic devices. Photonic crystals are optical nanostructures that are tuned to specific wavelengths of light. If you understand how semiconductors affect the motion of electrons (i.e. the bandgap only allows electrons with a certain energy level to pass through), photonic crystals are the optical equivalent. In this case, MIT has created infrared-absorbing photonic crystals using metals such as tungsten and titanium. Because of their metallic roots, these photonic crystals can operate at temperatures up to 1200C. Once an object becomes red or white hot, some 99% of the radiation produced is infrared. MIT’s photonic crystals are perfectly tuned to absorb infrared radiation, and they can survive high temperatures. This captured energy can then be converted into electricity.
Read MoreSundance#5 Offline; Genalta to use Husky Flare Gas; AEP Fires up new Dresden 580MW
Sundance#5 went offline at 03:03 this morning.
Alstom Grid has been selected by ATCO Electric, for the replacement and upgrade of control equipment at the McNeill Converter Station near Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. The Converter Station houses a 150MW back-to-back High Voltage Direct Current link that facilitates the efficient exchange of energy between several important North American electricity networks. This new contract will replace the now obsolete control equipment with the latest Alstom Grid Series V digital Control System which will improve the performance and will extend the life of the converter station.
Privately owned Genalta Power Inc. has reached a deal to generate electricity from waste gas being flared at a Husky Energy well in western Alberta. Genalta Power will build and operate the plant, expected to begin operations mid-2013.
American Electric Power has begun commercial operation of the Dresden natural gas-fired power plant, a nominal 580MW combined-cycle generating unit. The plant, located near Dresden, Ohio, provides 25 permanent jobs and employed 300 workers at the peak of construction…Fluor Corporation has been selected by a subsidiary of electricity generator LS Power Group to build a 125MW solar plant in Arizona. Fluor was also awarded a separate contract for ongoing operations and maintenance.
Read MoreAlta Spot Nat Gas Sub $2; Wildrose to Repeal Bill 50
Alberta natural gas spot price settled below $2/GJ for the first time since 2009. Alberta natural gas storage is currently 155bcf over last year at 88% full so don’t expect any jumps in price in the near term. All things considered, the Alberta heat rate has averaged 13.73GJ/MWh from the AESO 7X24 price in January and the forward heat rate on February averaged 44.50GJ/MWh so running a nat gas generator has been a huge money maker.
Let the election promises begin – a Wildrose government would repeal controversial Bill 50, force power generators to pay part of the cost of new transmission lines, reform electricity market price-setting mechanisms and hedge the volatile regulated electricity rate that most residential consumers pay. In the first of her five planned pre-election campaign commitments, Smith also promised to bury a portion of northern Alberta’s proposed Heartland line where it passes through neighborhoods and give consumers a tax credit for investing in “energy efficiency measures”. The Wildrose is now the third sitting opposition party to oppose the Progressive Conservative’s electrical deregulation policy and the free market system that many critics say isn’t working to the benefit of residential consumers. The NDP and Liberals have both called on the governing Tories to pull the plug on the electricity market and go back to a more regulated system. While her party wouldn’t eliminate the wholesale electricity market it would look at “the possible introduction” of a system where prices were set a day ahead, rather than hourly, to reduce price spikes.
Halifax, Nova Scotia-based developer Shear Wind reports that it no longer plans to sell the Willow Ridge wind farm to UEG-Green Energy Solutions/Alberta Inc. The company says it has evaluated its options and renewable electricity market conditions in Alberta, and has decided to continue with further development activities associated with the Willow Ridge assets.
Read MoreFirst Energy RFP
FirstEnergy Corp. announced that a Request for Proposal will be conducted to secure 10-year contracts to provide Solar Renewable Energy Credits for customers of its Ohio utilities – Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating and Toledo Edison – to help meet the renewable energy benchmarks established under Ohio‘s energy law. The RFP seeks delivery of 1,000 SRECs produced by qualified generating facilities in Ohio for each calendar year beginning in 2012 and continuing through 2021. SRECs represent the environmental attributes of solar renewable electricity generation. For every megawatt hour of solar renewable electricity generated, an equivalent amount of SRECs are produced.
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