Honeywell and the City of Hillsboro Power Water Storage Facility with Solar Panels
The city of Hillsboro, Ore., has awarded Honeywell a solar project that is expected to cut the city’s energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Under the agreement, Honeywell will install ground-mounted solar panels next to the Hillsboro Evergreen Reservoir water storage facility and sell the electricity the panels produce to the city for use at the reservoir. The panels are expected to generate more than 104,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, almost 20 percent of the power needed for the 15 million-gallon Evergreen Reservoir.
Energy Trust of Oregon, a nonprofit organization that promotes the use of efficient energy technologies and renewable resources, will help fund part of the project. Honeywell also will work with Renewable NRG, an Energy Trust Trade Ally based in Portland, Ore., to install the solar panels. SolarWorld Group will supply the solar modules and installation hardware.
The project will deliver environmental benefits as well, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 3.6 million pounds over the 20-year agreement. According to figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this is equivalent to removing more than 295 cars from the road for a year.
“The Hillsboro solar project is a great example of a forward-thinking municipality demonstrating that renewable energy can positively impact not only its budget, but also the community’s environment,” said Kacia Brockman, solar program manager for Energy Trust of Oregon.
IdaTech Signs Supply Agreement with Ballard Power Systems, Inc.
IdaTech plc has signed a three-year supply agreement with Ballard Power Systems Inc (Ballard).
The agreement with Ballard is for the supply of fuel cell stack modules for incorporation into the next generation of IdaTech's integrated sub-kilowatt fuel cell fuel system, the iGenT. The Ballard Mark1020ASC fuel cell product was selected as it meets all of IdaTech's technical requirements and is the best fit in terms of price, overall performance and reliability.
IdaTech's iGen products provide auxiliary and backup power solutions based on fuel cell technology. These deliver a number of significant advantages over conventional batteries and diesel generators, including high reliability over a wide range of operating conditions, low maintenance costs, long operating life, reduced size, weight, installation footprint and environmental impact.
This outsource agreement has the additional benefit of allowing IdaTech to focus more closely on the reforming, controls and integration requirements of the next generation IdaTech's products.
"The incorporation of the Ballard fuel cell stack into iGen will allow IdaTech to improve its profit margin on the next generation of these products, said Hal Koyama, CEO, IdaTech. “IdaTech's internal stack research, development and production capability has allowed us to select the best solution for this product. The incorporation of the Ballard stack has the added benefit of enabling the Company to focus on the whole product including its proprietary fuel reforming and purification techniques."
Evergreen Solar Begins Expansion of Its Manufacturing Facility in Devens, Mass.
Evergreen Solar, Inc. has begun a 80 MW expansion of its Devens, Mass. facility.
“Phase 1 of our Devens site is on schedule to open by mid 2008 and begin its ramp up to 80 MW of production in 2009. We expect to complete Phase 2 by early 2009 and it should be at its full 80 MW annual capacity by the end of 2009, bringing total site capacity to approximately 160 MW,” said Richard M. Feldt, Evergreen Solar’s chairman, president and CEO.
“With this expansion, we will have approximately 1,000 employees in Massachusetts in 2009, triple our employee base today, and we will be one of the leading green employers in the Commonwealth, continued Mr. Feldt. “The vision for broad scale solar adoption through Governor Patrick’s Commonwealth Solar incentive program plan for clean energy jobs, as well as the financial incentive package that the Governor and the Legislature provided Evergreen, were key to our decision to put our first major manufacturing facility in Massachusetts.”
Eaton Launches “Big Power, Small Footprint” Web Portal To Address Benefits Of Three-phase UPS Solutions
Eaton has launched its “Big Power, Small Footprint” Web portal to address the issues of diminishing floor space associated with increasing power requirements. The site contains information about the space-saving benefits three-phase uninterruptible power system (UPS) solutions, lists critical questions to consider before purchasing a UPS and white papers that speak to the importance of footprint and the benefits of transformerless UPS design.
Facility space is a valuable resource that is often overlooked. When considering the footprint of a UPS, it is more than just the size of the system. In addition to space savings, a small footprint UPS should be a lower weight to accommodate the installation process, easily accessible for everyday use and service, and scalable to meet future demands.
For example, when comparing other commercially available UPS models in the same power range, a Powerware 9395 UPS has a total footprint of 16.7 square feet and weighs 2,977 lb while a typical competitor’s model has a total footprint of 35.2 square feet and weighs 7,380 lb. The comparable system takes up more than two times as much space and weighs more than twice as much as the Powerware 9395.
The benefits of fitting more power in a smaller space are endless. A smaller footprint UPS offers savings in freight and shipping costs, electrical and cooling costs, and floor space. The Web portal takes these issues into consideration and presents questions that every facility manager should answer before committing to a UPS.
SFC Wins German Industry Award
SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG, a supplier of fuel cell products for mobile and off-grid power applications, has been awarded the “Industriepreis 2008” prize of the German small and medium size business organization. The EFOY fuel cell was selected as the most interesting and most innovative solution of 2008 in the energy category. “Initiative Mittelstand” honors industry products and solutions that feature an especially high user benefit and very high functionality.
SFC convinced the jury with a mobile fuel cell solution used by the Munich North motorway maintenance agency. In this application the EFOY fuel cell reliably and continuously supplies traffic guidance systems on motorways with power. The use of the fuel cell enables major cost savings in the application of hazard warning trailers with temporary LED-traffic signs.
On the trailers the fuel cells continuously re-charge the batteries. Before integration of fuel cells the maximum operating time per trailer was eight hours, now the trailers will run for up to ten days without interruption and without requiring user intervention.
“We have now been using the EFOY fuel cells for more than one and a half years”, said Peter Scheidler, head of the technical department, Munich North motorway maintenance agency. “Before, we had to pull the trailers into the depot for a battery recharge on the grid every day, including the weekends. Now they run continuously for many days, which for us results in an enormous reduction of time, effort, and costs. We really love the fuel cell solution!”
Ecosystems Summit 2008 • Denver, Colo. • June 25-26
Ecosystems Summit 2008 is a solutions-packed two-day conference focused on the business opportunities for increasing sales and profits from the ecosystems of software, IT, electronics OEM and advanced technology companies. Today's leading technology companies are developing products and services to serve numerous specific solutions and platforms. To capitalize on the growth opportunities from these developments, you need to know how to become a key player in the ecosystems of strategic partner networks. Learn how to build your own web of lucrative ecosystem relationships and put the power of alliance and partner programs to work for you. You'll learn the best practices to take advantage of these market opportunities. Discover investment levels, time-to-revenue benchmarks, structuring the best deals and achieving maximum benefit from them by building your ecosystem programs to become revenue-generating growth engines.
www.ecosystemssummit.com
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ZBB Energy Corp. has introduced its commercial product platform ZESS, the Zinc Energy Storage System. The new name more accurately describes the function of ZBB’s regenerative fuel cell type product as well as its green, renewable energy storage system. The unit is a proprietary 50 kWh energy module that can be sized and packaged as a fully customized, large format energy storage system.
EnerSys has introduced the first 16 V front terminal battery for UPS markets. The DataSafe 16 V battery provides more power in less space, easier access and cost benefits. 