Tag Archives: power
Gulf nations’ investments in power sector to hit $250b
Gulf nations’ investments in power sector to hit $250b Staff Report / 15 June 2013 Gulf countries’ investments in the power sector is estimated to reach $250 billion in the next five years due to massive development and rapid growth, according to a latest study. Good outlook for power + water 2013 The rising demand in the power sector will further strengthen the role of Power + Water Middle East, the region’s premier showcase for the power and water sectors, taking place from September 23 to 25 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. The event is held in strategic partnership with the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority and will play a regional role in the celebrations of the International Year of Water 2013. The sixth edition of Power + Water Middle East will bring together developers, manufacturers, buyers and service providers from a range of sectors in power and water to meet, discuss and invest in current products and technologies in the related industries. – business@khaleejtimes.com The report, entitled “Power UAE” and published by research specialists Global Business Reports, said that the next five to 10 years will be crucial in shaping not only the UAE power sector, but will also change the face of the industry in the GCC and wider Middle East. With the power sectors of Abu Dhabi and Dubai experiencing rapid growth, experts estimate the annual growth in demand for electricity will rise by eight to 10 per cent over the next 10 years. The report added that Abu Dhabi’s power sector remains on top of the regional investment table with eight independent power and water producers in operation along with the introduction of the GCC’s first nuclear project which is now in its construction phase and slated to be fully operational by 2020. In Dubai, there are currently 11 plants varying from 400MW to 1,400MW with a total capacity of almost 9,000MW. This is in addition to the emirate’s new Dh300 million project to extend and activate a 132KW transmission cable network to redistribute powe load and provide stable electricity and water services throughout the city. Meanwhile, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah possess minimal natural resources and are in the initial stages of industrial development, with each stepping up efforts to build on their power and water sectors and encourage foreign investment to drive growth. “Economic diversification and demographics are driving the development of the power and water sectors in Abu Dhabi and the GCC, underlining the fact that the region is not only one of the fastest growing but also holds the most potential of global electricity markets,” said Abdulla Saif Al Nuaimi, director-general of the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority. “Abu Dhabi and Dubai have some of the world’s highest levels of electricity use per capita and efficiency of both electricity usage and generation will be the main concern across the UAE, GCC and Middle East regions in the coming years, especially with climatic changes demanding increased consumption of water and electricity in the summer months,” said Anita Mathews, director of Informa Energy Group, organisers of Power + Water Middle East. — business@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Switchgrass As Jet Fuel For Navy Fighters?
Switchgrass is on the forefront of biomass technology and it could be converted into jet fuel to power Navy planes and more. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), run by the Energy Department, is looking into ways that switchgrass could be used to fuel jets. To achieve this goal, the group has partnered with the U.S. Navy, Cobalt Technologies, and the Show Me Energy Cooperative. Producing jet fuel from biomass like switchgrass is not new. However, before jets start flying on fuel made from the grass, production would have to be both affordable and available in quantities large enough to make economic sense. “This can be an important step in the efforts to continue to displace petroleum by using biomass resources. We’re converting biomass into sugars for subsequent conversion to butanol and then to JP5 jet fuel,” Dan Schell, NREL manager for bioprocess integration research and development, said. The Department of Energy is funding four separate projects to find a renewable source of biomass that could be turned into fuel to power both land vehicles and airplanes. Switchgrass is a wild grass that grows in all latitudes of the United States and Mexico, but is found primarily in the prairies. If this wild grass could be successfully used for the production of jet fuel in the large-enough quantities, it would provide a green alternative to fossil fuels, and would not require the use of a food stock like corn. Producing jet fuel from switchgrass would produce 95 percent less greenhouse gases than refining fossil fuels. The grass is collected by the Show Me Energy Cooperative, and then converted into sugars at the NREL through the use of enzymes, after pre-treating with a weak acid. The sugars are then fed into fermenters built by Cobalt Technologies with a capacity of nearly 2,400 gallons. There, they are converted into butyl alcohol (butanol) through the action of microorganisms. Using Navy know-how and catalysts, the alcohol is converted into jet fuel back at NREL. Switchgrass grows throughout Kentucky, where it is also being studied for use as an alternative fuel, if only as biomass to be directly burned. There, researchers from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture have had some success in using the grass to produce green energy. “We learned a whole lot and found some useful applications for the forage until a consistent biomass market develops,” Ray Smith, University of Kentucky extension forage specialist, said. Interest in the grass from the Navy could be the market for which Smith is looking. If tests are successful, the Departments of Defense and Agriculture will assist companies who wish to produce the greener fuel. Continue reading
Southern U.S. Logging Soars To Meet Foreign Biofuel Demand
By Tanya Dimitrova , special to mongabay.com June 06, 2013 In order to meet the European Union’s goal of 20% renewables by 2020, some European utility companies are moving away from coal and replacing it with wood pellet fuel. The idea is simple: trees will regrow and recapture the carbon released in the burning of wood pellets, making the process supposedly carbon-neutral. But just like other simple ideas, it misses out important details that can turn it on its head. The catch is that the process could be carbon neutral only after the trees regrow to the original size. In the case of cutting 100-year old forest, it would take a century. If the forest is clear-cut, it may never regrow, unless replanted. If the new forest plantation is composed by different or fewer tree species, it will most likely store less carbon than the original forest. Finally, if the forest ecosystem was rich and valuable, as for example a wetland forest, its wildlife may be lost forever. Cutting old-grown forests, wetland forests and clear-cutting is illegal or highly regulated in most of Europe. In the Southern U.S., however, it is perfectly legal. That is where the large wood pellet producers are staging their operations. A Maryland-based company Enviva is one of the top five largest pellet producers in the US. Its facilities in North Carolina and Mississippi currently produce and export to Europe more than half a million tons of wood pellets every year. The company plans to triple its output in the next few years to meet ever-increasing demand for wood biomass fuel, mainly from European utilities, but also from U.S. power plants. Enviva’s facility in Ahoskie, North Carolina. The photograph shows that the company is using large quantities of whole tree trunks for its pellets. Photo by: Southern Environmental Law Center. Enviva claims that it produces wood pellets only from low-grade wood resources such as chips, bark, sawdust by-products, treetops, branches, and other forestry debris remaining after the tree trunks from commercial forests have been shipped for construction material. These unprocessed residues would most likely otherwise go unused as a resource. Additional biomass sources currently include low-grade wood fiber and small logs. However, North Carolina private loggers and land-owners interviewed for a Wall Street Journal investigative report last week admitted that trees more than 100 years old, including some from wetlands, does wind up in pellet plants. “Enviva, now they need wood bad enough that they’re paying for some swamp logging,” one logger said to the WSJ reporter. The company did not respond to an information request by Mongabay this week. Scot Quaranda from Dogwood Alliance, and NGO working on protecting Southern forests, explains that there is little to no regulation impacting the management of forests in the Southern U.S.. Unfortunately, 90% of the forests are privately owned and lack legal protection. Most of the management guidelines that are on the books are completely voluntary and do not include limitations to large-scale clear-cutting, conversion of natural forests to plantations, logging of wetlands, use of toxic chemicals, or logging of endangered forests. That is why Dogwood Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council have launched a new campaign, dubbed Our Forests Aren’t Fuel . “We focus our work on the marketplace, because in the South, big corporations drive both the destruction and changes in forest practices,” says Quaranda. The irony is that European utility companies restrict the import of wood pellets to developed countries such as the U.S. exactly in order to avoid illegal logging. “The US forest sector is well set up and managed, meets our sustainability criteria and the supplies of sustainable biomass are plentiful,” says Melanie Wedgbury from Drax Power—the largest British electrical power generation company. Last year Drax announced plans to transform itself into a predominantly biomass-fuelled generator. The company is converting three of its six generating units to run on 100% biomass instead of coal. According to a BBC report , Drax will be burning seven million tons of plant material a year. Bayou forest in Lousiana. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. REFERENCE: Searchinger, Timothy D., et al. “Fixing a critical climate accounting error.” Science 326.5952 (2009): 527. Read more at http://news.mongabay…kycyOfw7HjE2.99 Continue reading
