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Woods & Wetlands
Power Plant Information
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Microturbines
last updated 1/14/2000
What Are They?
These miniature peaker power plants are the size of a broom closet. Each
one has a small gas turbine (jet engine). It burns fossil fuel, either
oil or (natural) gas. The basic configuration has an electrical generator,
producing 30 kW to 250 kW, with 75 kW an emerging standard, at 30% efficiency.
That's enough for around 10 homes or a large store or two.
They are designed to be the primary source of electricity for
a large store or business, with electricity from ComEd serving as back-up.
They are coming to locations near you in 2000. Unlike most of the power
plants we are accustomed to, these will be installed in the facility where
the electricity they generate will be used. They will not rely on the present
extensive distribution "grid", and might become the first major deployment
of distributed electricity generating capacity.
How Do They Affect our Environment?
They could be better for our environment, or worse, compared to our present
sources electricity, but much worse compared to available renewable sources.
Burning fossil fuels always produces CO2 (3 lb. of CO2
from every 1 lb. of fuel) the gas principally responsible for Global Warming,
as well as other toxic emissions: NOx (ozone forming), CO (poisonous),
VOC's (more ozone and smog), and PM10 (particulates). Because turbines
burn the fuel more completely than auto engines, they produce less toxic
emissions, without emissions controls. However, these turbines are poor
at extracting energy from the burning fuel: only 30% of the energy available
in the fuel is delivered as electricity. The rest goes out the stack as
very hot gases. So, in spite of their micro size, they must burn a lot
of fuel to generate electricity. Burning more fuel results in more emissions.
It is entirely likely that many of these micro plants will be installed
in every community, multiplying the emissions impact.
The efficiency can easily be boosted to 80% with add-on features that
recapture the energy in the high temperature exhaust and use it for heating,
or even cooling. By doubling or tripling the efficiency of these machines,
we can get more benefit out of the fuel they burn, and avoid 2 to 3 times
the emissions from additional sources. However, even if they operated at
an impossible 100% efficiency, they would still be burdening our air with
pollution.
Are they Really Coming?
Microturbines: Suppliers Specifications
Updated 1/14/2000
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NREC |
Allied/Ford |
Capstone |
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Green House Gas Emissions Tests |
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Efficiency |
Solar Power |
Wind Power |
Microturbines? |
How Do We Protect Our Air Quality?
We're working on a few ideas. Check back here in a few weeks, or e-mail
us if you would like to help.
Join!