Tag: Boost
DOE Won’t Increase Regulation on Gas to Boost Coal, Perry Says
The Trump administration wants to revitalize the coal industry, but they will not do so by imposing regulation on the natural gas industry, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry told reporters July 18 at a joint press conference with International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol.
“Would the Department of Energy (DOE) be a participant in putting regulations into place to protect a particular energy sector?,” Perry said. “The answer is no.”
Though he firmly stated that DOE will not increase regulation on energy sources that compete with coal, he was unclear about how the administration intends to make coal competitive again.
He seemed to suggest that exports, either of coal or technology, would play a large role in a revitalized coal industry. Noting that coal still accounts for roughly 40% of worldwide energy generation, Perry stated: “It’s not like coal has been pushed out of the marketplace, I mean you are going to see coal used in the world. Our goal is for us to use the cleanest technology that we can and generally speaking, that technology is going to come from the U.S.”…
New Options in Industrial CHP Boost Efficiency and Returns
Combined heat and power (CHP) has long been a popular option for industrial self-generation, but new technologies and business partnerships are taking the sector well beyond the traditional boilers and diesel gensets.
The Erving Paper Mill in the western Massachusetts town of the same name has operated for more than 100 years. Once part of a thriving industry, it’s now one of a few remaining New England paper mills still clinging to life. Battered by foreign competition, paper mills like Erving have continued operating by finding profitable niches (Erving supplies products like recycled napkins to the food service industry) and keeping costs as low as possible.
Opting for modern self-generation is one way the mill has helped safeguard its role as one of the town’s largest employers. Paper mills have long relied on captive combined heat and power (CHP) plants, often fired by waste materials, but these aging boilers are drawing attention from environmental regulators concerned about emissions. Erving had a small fuel oil–fired boiler and steam turbine, but this old system was no longer sufficient even after being converted to natural gas.…
Global Developments Giving CHP a Much-Needed Boost
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global power production from combined-heat-and-power (CHP) technologies has stagnated since 2000, lagging far behind growth in conventional power technologies and commercial heat generation. Despite having an average efficiency of 59%, CHP’s share of global generation in 2013 stood at just 9% (Figure 1), the bulk of it at industrial sites in the chemicals, metal, oil refining, pulp and paper, and food processing sectors (see this issue’s cover stories).
1. Co-generation trends. Source: International Energy Agency (2016), Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2016, OECD/IEA, ParisThat may be poised to change, however: Along with the Paris agreement and a renewed drive for increased energy efficiency, a number of countries have of late implemented policy initiatives that could spur growth for CHP.
U.S. In the U.S., where CHP has a long history in the industrial sector, several market drivers are emerging, the Department of Energy noted in an April 2016 report. These include lower energy operating costs, environmental regulations, resiliency initiatives, utility support, and project replicability (for more, see “CHP Update: Policies, Partnerships, and Challenges” in POWER’s February 2016 issue).…