Green Energy News | December 13, 1998

December 13, 1998 – Vol.3 No.37

ENERGIES... week of December 13,1998

SOLAR GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS. What’s good for the country, and perhaps the planet, can also be good for jobs and business. The U.S. Government often lends a helping hand - in terms of money - for certain technologies that have a promising future in the marketplace. One technology is thin film photovoltaics.

This year through the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Thin Film Partnership program, $60 million has been awarded to companies nationwide to push forward the research and production of thin film solar cells. The promise is low cost and highly efficient PV cells that can be produced on a roll like paper.

Recent awards went to ITN Energy - a three year contract for $733,166 under a partnership program entitled “Atmospheric Pressure Vapor Deposition of CdTe for High Efficiency Thin Film PV Devices” (cadmium telluride) and Global Solar Energy - $1,698,232 under a similar program titled “Process Development of Large Area, Thin Film CIGS” (copper indium gallium selenide). Both programs allow for government researchers to work alongside their industry counterparts to move the technologies into commercialization. Visit Global Solar at http://www.globalsolar.com/.

CHP CHALLENGE. Combined heat and power is also on the Government’s mind for the future. The U.S. Department of Energy has announced a new initiative called the CHP Challenge, the goal of which is to double the amount of CHP in the U.S. by 2010. Efficiency of combined heat and power plants can exceed 70% - more than double that of other power plants.

Trigen-Cinergy Solutions has signed a 15 year contract to install and operate a 10.4 megawatt CHP plant for Millennium Inorganic Chemicals in Baltimore, MD. The project will include three cogeneration units and a back pressure turbine to supply electricity and steam both used in the production of titanium dioxide - a whitener for paint and other products. The project is the first to come under the CHP Challenge. Visit Trigen at http://www.trigen.com/ .

BETTER BEARINGS. The world is full of rotating mechanisms and most of those have a bushing or bearing supporting a moving shaft. The better the bearing the easier the shaft spins and the less energy required. Though ball and roller bearings haven’t changed much in decades, Dr. Ranga Komanduri at Oklahoma State University thinks that ceramic bearings polished to near-perfection within a magnetic field can be the answer to more efficient and durable bearings.

For ceramic ball finishing his process, called Magnetic Float Polishing, has shown that unpolished silicon nitride balls can be completely polished to high finish accuracy and roundness in less than 24 hours - compared with 4-6 weeks for current diamond grinding and lapping processes for ceramic balls. Komanduri has a similar method for roller bearings.

So impressed is the State of Oklahoma, it would like to help build an industry around Dr. Komanduri’s work.