Arno's EnergyIdeas (12)
About short news with large effects
Cash for the coal
Often there are the short news, containing great meanings and its scope
sometimes only will come to the surface "years later" coincidentally.
This is an example of such a message:
World Bank for power plants in India
The World Bank approved financing for a controversial power plant project
in India. The Tata Group is planning five coal-fired power plants near the
town of Mundra, which will generate four gigawatt of electric power
altogether. The project will cost 4.2 billion U.S. dollars (currently
about 2.7 billion Euro), one-tenth of the budget is granted by the World
Bank subsidiary, International Finance Corporation (IFC), as a long-term
credit. The money comes from a program for clean energy. The power plant's
volume of greenhouse gases is expected to be 40 percent than that from
existing coal-fired power plants in India, argued the World Bank.
Environmentalists ask to postpone the decision because of funding big
polluters. On the other hand, power shortage hinders the development of
India ...
Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung on 11.4.2008.
What sort of process can be used here, achieving 40 percent less carbon
emissions in the power generation? In this case, it is the so-called
"super-critical" technology. In this process, supercritical steam
parameters ensure: "... the best use of the fuel, thus minimizing
emissions and the consumption of resources ...". The steam is heated to
600 degrees, the pressure is around 300 bar.
The first lignite, power plant using supercritical steam generators
worldwide was operative in 1997, with a capacity of 2 x 800 MWe at
Schwarze Pumpe in Germany. There are now over 400 plants with this process
technology in the U.S., Europe, Russia and Japan in use. The commissioning
of the first 800MWe plant in India is scheduled for completion in 2011.
Main supplier countries for the plant will be Korea and Japan. (!)
The question should be allowed: is there no economically feasible
alternatives to coal to the region around the Tata Mundra project in
southern India, which would fit better?
The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, both with
headquarters in Washington, DC, USA, have been supporting wind and solar
power plants for a long time. Apparently, it might be beyond the abilities
of the decision-makers to plan the generation of four gigawatt of electric
power in India sustainable and regenerative. Why this return, back to
coal, which will come from Indonesia and other countries' import. Why
promoting a technology, which was conceived more than 25 years ago?
A decentralized, direct solar hydrogen production with fewer than 20,000
local fuel cell systems in the 200 kWe range would be certainly a better
alternative. Then you should not only use the electricity, but also the
(wasted) heat, which occurs during electricity production in the fuel
cells, useful e.g. for air conditioners. Also the resulting water at the
place of production has to be used commercially. In our example, a 200 kWe
fuel cell system will cost net 210,000 U.S. dollars (135,000 Euro), the
commercial use of waste heat and water by from the FC is not even
considered. This will be governed by the rules of supply and demand.
The decentralized solar hydrogen production could easily, in our example,
be created by saving the grid and transition costs. Thousands of
kilometres of newly created low-, medium-high and very high voltage power
lines and thousands of transformers would not be needed when implementing
a real hydrogen infrastructure.
A realistic goal, however, the question remains open: Who will realize it?
Here is another small message, this time on my own “mission”: The Hannover
Fair 2008 was excellent, the Group Exhibit Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, which
I founded in 1995, was bigger than ever. For April 2009, 200 international
exhibitors are expected by the organisers. This has nothing to do with
“Zeitgeist”, but is based on hard work. Thanks to all the international
exhibitors, visitors, VIPs, media representatives and the Tobias Renz
FAIR-PR team and: All the very best to all of you!
Links to news:
http://www.ifc.org/
http://www.web.worldbank.org
https://www.hydrogenambassadors.com/background/facts.php#productionofelectricity
https://www.hydrogenambassadors.com/meet-aae/solartech-india2007/impressions-india.php
I would be glad, to start a dialogue with you on these or other energy ideas
You can reach me at: arno@hydrogenambassadors.com
Date: 06.05.2008
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