Category: The Energy Entry

From Environmental Leader, January 27, 2012

Air compressors present a variety of opportunities for saving energy, from leak reduction and air intake improvements, to maintenance, monitoring, specification and design, according to guidance from the Carbon Trust.

Of the total energy supplied to a compressor, as little as 8 to 10 percent is converted to usable energy at point of use, making it a very inefficient and expensive way of transferring energy. The Carbon Trust says businesses in the U.K. could save up to £110 million a year ($173 million) by taking simple actions, at little or no cost, to improve compressed air systems and processes.

The trust says that compressed air can be up to 30 percent of a facility’s energy use, with frequent users of compressed air including companies in aircraft and auto manufacturing, cement, ceramics, chemicals, electronics, engineering, food and drink, foundries, glass, insulation materials, minerals, paper and board, pharmaceuticals, power generation, rubber and plastics, steel, textiles, tobacco and water treatment.

Some of the opportunities for improvement are:

Read the complete article at Environmental Leader

ScienceDaily (Dec. 11, 2011) — An energy quiz which tests people’s knowledge of the amount of energy used by various devices and processes, such as leaving the lights switched on the Christmas tree, has been developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.

A team led by Dr Alex Rogers at the University’s ECS — Electronics and Computer Science, developed The Energy Quiz, a “game with a purpose” for BT to challenge its employees to test their knowledge about energy and ECS and will launch a new version on 12 December. The online quiz, which can be found at: http://www.energy-quiz.org invites players to compete and to answer 12 questions about energy comparisons. For example, it asks: which uses more energy a Christmas tree with 100 lights continuously lit over the festive period or a dishwasher used once a week for month; or it compares heating water for a typical office for a year with a full Boeing 747 flying 400 miles with heating a typical office for a day versus driving a car 100 miles. BT has invited 200 employees to play the game and will roll it out to a further 3,500 in the next phase.

Read the complete article at Science News

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released the latest version of its building energy modeling software EnergyPlus, which calculates the energy required to heat, cool, ventilate, and light a building. EnergyPlus is used by architects and engineers to design more efficient buildings, by researchers to investigate new building and system designs, and by policymakers to develop energy codes and standards. The advanced physics calculations within EnergyPlus allows it to model a wide range of residential and commercial buildings and HVAC system types, including passive building designs and low-energy systems. EnergyPlus v7.0 features many enhancements including:

• 25%-40% faster execution speeds on a wide variety of models. Up to 500% improvements are possible on models using airflow networks
• Improved modeling of ventilation rate procedures and a new thermal comfort report, both based on ASHRAE Standard 62.1
• New equipment performance data sets for packaged rooftop air-conditioners and heat pumps
• New model for variable refrigerant flow heat pump air-conditioners
• Extensions to the Energy Management System (EMS) and Runtime Language
• Updated utilities.

Full story

It’s time to stop thinking of solar energy as a boutique source of power, says Joshua Pearce.

Sure, solar only generates about one percent of the electricity in the US. But that will change in a few years, says Pearce, an associate professor of electrical engineering and materials science at Michigan Technological University. The ultimate in renewable energy is about to go mainstream.

It’s a matter of economics. A new analysis by Pearce and his colleagues at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, shows that solar photovoltaic systems are very close to achieving the tipping point: they can make electricity that’s as cheap—sometimes cheaper—as what consumers pay their utilities.

Here’s why. First, the price of solar panels has plummeted. “Since 2009, the cost has dropped 70 percent,” says Pearce. But more than that, the assumptions used in previous studies have not given solar an even break.

“Historically, when comparing the economics of solar and conventional energy, people have been very conservative,” says Pearce.

Read the complete article at Environmental Protection Online

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2011) — Pyrite, better known as “fool’s gold,” was familiar to the ancient Romans and has fooled prospectors for centuries — but has now helped researchers at Oregon State University discover related compounds that offer new, cheap and promising options for solar energy.

These new compounds, unlike some solar cell materials made from rare, expensive or toxic elements, would be benign and could be processed from some of the most abundant elements on Earth. Findings on them have been published in Advanced Energy Materials, a professional journal.

Iron pyrite itself has little value as a future solar energy compound, the scientists say, just as the brassy, yellow-toned mineral holds no value compared to the precious metal it resembles. But for more than 25 years it was known to have some desirable qualities that made it of interest for solar energy, and that spurred the recent research.

The results have been anything but foolish.

Read the complete article at SceinceDaily

In its Motors and Drive Technology Overview, the trust says that a running motor’s energy use in one year can cost up to ten times its purchase cost. Typical running costs for a fully loaded motor range from £1,770 a year for a 2.2kW motor to £25,970 a year for a 37kW motor, the guide says, assuming an electricity price of £0.08/kWh.

The Carbon Trust says that because motors are so widespread, and often hidden within machinery, they tend to be left running even when they are not needed. It recommends that companies identify equipment that can be switched off, and consider the risks of doing so: for example, what is the potential for the operator to switch off the wrong motor, or switch off at the wrong time? Does flipping the switch pose health and safety risks?

Enterprises should consider automatic switch-off using timers, interlocks or load-sensing devices. If using manual switch-offs, companies should consider writing a switch-off procedure, and placing it where operators can easily see it.

The Carbon Trust has also published its Variable Speed Drives Technology Guide, showing various ways that VSDs can be used to reduce energy use in a range of motor applications.

According to the guide, about half of all motor applications have some kind of varying demand. This includes fans, pumps, winding reels and precision tools.

Join Environmental Leader for a webinar on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 10am PST/1pm EST, discussing hidden energy and sustainability costs.

Learn first-hand how organizations are gaining comprehensive visibility of their overall energy spend with a single, enterprise-wide system of record.

Register now to join Tom Harrington, senior program manager, workplace services at Intuit and Jason Smith, manager of sales engineering at Hara, for an insightful one-hour discussion.

Topics will include:

• Why energy management is a broken business process, but also a here and now opportunity
• How to drive energy measurement to enable better analysis, planning and action
• How Intuit is achieving success in its energy and sustainability initiatives.

This webcast offers both essential education and practical advice from expert practitioners.