Green Energy News | June 7, 1998

June 7, 1998 – Vol.3 No.10

ENERGIES... week of June 7, 1998

IMAGINE ALL THE LIGHTS. Lighting for factories, warehouses, office buildings, sports facilities, parking and car sales lots could all be dimmed during daytime peak hours - and non-peak hours when not needed - for energy savings of 25% or more.

SLS Industries of Hanover, Maryland has entered the initial production stage of its UNIDIM (tm) high intensity discharge (HID) ballasts for Metal Halide (MH) and High Pressure Sodium (HPS) indoor and outdoor lamps. Initially SLS is offering ready-to-install 250 Watt ballasts with 320, 350 and 400 Watt units available later this year. With the new electronic ballasts MH lamps can be continuously dimmed 50 -100%, HPS 40-100%.

According to the company, lights with the new ballasts are quiet and flicker-free and can be fully integrated with energy and lighting management systems. Municipal and industrial lighting is often turned on full strength in daylight when not needed, and left on when people have gone home. Dimming those lights, while still providing enough light for security purposes, could lower electric bills for businesses and communities. Imagine all the energy saved.

WOOD WASTE TO ENERGY. Biomass fuels can be carbon dioxide neutral. When a tree or wood burns, some of the carbon stored in the wood (carbon taken from CO2 in the air as the tree was growing) is released back into the air again as CO2. Planting a new tree in place of the one burned would complete the cycle, in theory at least. Additional trees would help store carbon from other sources - carbon sinks for excess CO2 in the atmosphere.

KFx Inc. will offer its K-Fuel wood waste biomass fuel products with the start-up of its first K-Fuel biomass module near Gillette, Wyoming. The module will process up to 4000 pounds per hour of wood waste into boiler fuel, char and activated carbon. The plant is completely portable and can be moved to the site of the wood feedstock, then moved after the waste is processed. Portability eliminates the high cost of feedstock transportation and the possibility of a shortage at a particular site.

Aside from the fuel products, activated carbon is used as a filter medium to scrub water, gaseous emissions and industrial waste. KFx is also planning a larger, full-scale facility that will process 16,000 lbs/hour.

WOOD POWER FOR THE UK. The construction of Europe’s first wood-fueled power plant will begin soon in Eggborough, North Yorkshire. The $46 million plant will use wood waste to produce up to 10 Megawatts of electricity. 8 MW will be sold to the electric grid to meet the daily energy needs of 18,000 people. Yorkshire Water is leading the project. TPS Termiska Processer of Sweden and the Royal Schelde Group of the Netherlands are providing the technology.