Power Air Quality Insights No

· “Hot Topic Hour” Next Friday, August 17, 2012 To Cover Coal-Gen Highlights

· Gas-to-Liquids to Generate $4 Billion in Annual Investment Over the Next Decade

“Hot Topic Hour” Next Friday, August 17, 2012 to Cover Coal-Gen Highlights

Next week the Hot Topic Hour will be on Friday, August 17 at 10 a.m. and not on Thursday. Bob McIlvaine will be gathering information and will summarize the highlights and insights gathered from the papers and from the exhibitions. Exhibitors include AAF, Air Cure, Alstom, AOC, Augusta, Blome, Clyde Bergemann, Dustex, Ershigs, FLSmdth, Fueltech, KCC, Nalco, Paragon, Roberts & Schaefer, Thermo Scientific, United Conveyor, Veolia and others. There will be a number of interesting presentations August 15-16. Here are the titles of some:

On Thursday at 10 a.m. Central time, McIlvaine hosts a 90 minute web meeting on important energy and pollution control subjects. Power webinars are free for subscribers to either Power Plant Air Quality Decisions or Utility Environmental Upgrade Tracking System. The cost is $125.00 for non-subscribers. Market Intelligence webinars are free to McIlvaine market report.

	DATE		Non-Subscribers Cost		SUBJECT		Webinar Type
August 17, 2012 (FRIDAY)		$125.00		Report from Coal-Gen (highlights of speeches and exhibitions)		Power
August 23, 2012		$125.00		Report from Mega Symposium (highlights of speeches and exhibitions at this important air pollution conference)		Power
August 30, 2012		$125.00		Pumps for Power Plants, Boilers and Water Treatment Facilities Combined Cycle Plants		Power
September 6, 2012		$125.00		Production of Fertilizer and Sulfuric Acid at Coal-fired Power Plants		Power
September 13, 2012		$125.00		Instruments and Technology for On-line Boiler Monitoring		Power
September 27, 2012		$125.00		Coal-fired Boiler Optimization		Power
October 11, 2012		$125.00		Air Preheaters & Heat Exchangers		Power
October 18, 2012		$400.00		Instrumentation for air, gas, water, liquids (forecasts, market shares, growth segments)		Market Intelligence
October 25, 2012		$125.00		Cooling Towers and Cooling Water Issues		Power
November 1, 2012		$125.00		FGD Scrubber Components		Power
November 8, 2012		$125.00		Dampers and Expansion Joints for Coal-fired and Gas Turbine Power Plants		Power
November 15, 2012		$125.00		Catalyst Selection for NO_x and Other Gases		Power
November 29, 2012		$125.00		Boiler Feed and Cooling Water Treatment		Power
December 6, 2012		$125.00		Co-firing Sewage Sludge, Biomass and Municipal Waste		Power
December 13, 2012		$125.00		Update on Oxy-fuel Combustion		Power
January 10, 2013		$125.00		Material Handling in Coal-fired Power Plants		Power
January 17, 2013		$125.00		Gypsum Dewatering		Power
January 24, 2013		$400.00		Filter media (forecasts and market drivers for media used in air, gas, liquid, fluid applications, both mobile and stationary)		Market Intelligence
January 31, 2013		$125.00		Valves for Power Plants, Boilers and Water Treatment Facilities		Power

§ Fuel Tech receives Multiple Orders for SNCR, ULTRA and Modeling

§ Global Power Equipment Group buys Koontz-Wagner Custom Controls Holdings

§ Appeals Court rules EPA has ability to Partially Approve/Disapprove State SIP

§ Hamon Research-Cottrell awarded ESP to FF Conversion Project at Pacificorp Hunter Unit 1

§ Four Different Approaches to Removing the Mercury Presented in Hot Topic Hour August 2

§ “Materials for Corrosion Prevention in Power Plant and Boiler APC Systems” is Hot Topic Hour on August 9, 2012

Gas-to-Liquids to Generate $4 Billion in Annual Investment Over the Next Decade

More than $4 billion per year will be invested for plants to convert conventional and unconventional gas into liquids. These liquids will be used for fuel and chemicals. This is the latest forecast in Oil, Gas, Shale and Refining Markets and Projects, an online report published by the McIlvaine Company. (www.mcilvainecompany.com)

Converting natural gas into liquid fuels is now seen as a primary way to take advantage of the large shale gas reserves in the U.S. Sasol and Shell plants in Louisiana are slated to require an investment of over $24 billion. There are plants under consideration in Alaska, British Columbia and Pennsylvania.

The largest and longest running plant is operated by Sasol in South Africa. A second plant is under development at Mossel Bay. Additional plants are slated for Thailand, Nigeria, Uzbekistan and Brazil.

Liquids created from gas are high in purity. The diesel fuel emits fewer pollutants to the environment than diesel made from crude oil. There is also less engine wear.

Unconventional gas and coal will also be used as feed stocks. China is already operating plants using coal as a feed stock. Through indirect gasification technology coal is converted to gas and then in a further process converted to fuel or chemicals. There are a number of coal to chemicals plants in operation or planning. The Eastman plant in Tennessee has been making chemicals from coal for decades.

Coal bed methane and biomass are additional sources of gas which can be converted to liquids. An alternative process for making biodiesel is with indirect gasification.

The contribution of gas-to-liquids will be significant but will not compare to the liquids which are extracted along with conventional and unconventional gas. By 2015, condensates and other natural gas liquids will contribute fourteen million barrels per day of product.

The conversion of gas-to-liquids involves a large investment in pumps, valves and instrumentation. Extensive investments in air and water pollution control equipment are also required.

As these recent articles from McIlvaine’s Renewable Energy Projects and Update illustrate solar is steadily becoming an important part of the energy picture.

Per-state Purchasing up to $86 Million Illustrates Solar Manufacturing’s Multiplier Effect

Four of the founding manufacturers of the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) purchased more than a combined $400 million in goods and services from other manufacturers and employers in 46 states in 2011, according to a CASM survey.

This flow of business highlights just one dimension of solar manufacturing’s multiplier effect in supporting jobs and spurring activity across the U.S. economy, according to CASM. The coalition of about 190 U.S. employers of more than 16,000 American workers contends the nation cannot afford to lose its own industry, particularly in light of advanced manufacturing’s power to generate high-paying and stable jobs and beneficial ripple effects, including research and innovation. Instead, CASM seeks trade-law enforcement to restore legal international competition and domestic manufacturing growth.

According to the CASM purchasing survey, four of the coalition’s seven founding manufacturers purchased a total of more than $1 million in goods and services in 21 states and at least $50 million in four states: Oregon ($86 million) and Pennsylvania ($74 million), Michigan ($60.8 million) and California ($50 million). (For more detailed survey highlights, go to the CASM website). The total helps employers cover payrolls in upstream sectors such as glass fabrication, polysilicon production and aluminum extrusion, and downstream services such as auditing, laboratory analysis and transportation.

The paper cities National Association of Manufacturing findings, backed by similar results from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, that “each dollar’s worth of manufactured goods creates another $1.43 of activity in other sectors, twice the $.71 multiplier for services.”

Equally well-established is the intimate connection between manufacturing and innovation – as well as the additional business and academic development associated with it, according to CASM.

Within the next five years solar energy in a large portion of the U.S. will be cheaper than power from the grid. Costs of solar panels and installation keep moving down, while the transportation costs of electricity move up. When solar power reaches the ‘holy grail’ of grid parity the solar market in the U.S. a sleeping giant will awake, experts predict.

“The awakening of the U.S. solar market will be driven by grid parity within each region. Federal incentives provide a good foundation for the expansion of the solar industry but state-level incentives are still needed to truly make solar energy competitive in each regional market. Over the next five years we believe that solar will reach grid parity in a large portion of the U.S. market, thus opening up the opportunity for significant expansion of the industry in the years to come,” says renewable energy advisor Eric Graber-Lopez of BlueWave Capital.

Former CEO of Sir Richard Bransons Carbon War Room Jigar Shah sees grid parity as a natural development: “Americans refuse to overpay for solar PV. Once the costs of solar PV are cheaper than the retail power prices – as they are for over 20 percent of Americans now – the local solar companies will significantly ramp up marketing campaigns,” he expects.

New Data Shows 97 Percent of Americans Overestimate the Cost of Installing Solar Panels

Sunrun, the nation’s largest home solar company, announced results of a nationwide poll assessing Americans’ beliefs about the desirability and costs of installing a home solar system. Among the results is data indicating 97 percent of Americans overestimate the cost of going solar, while nearly 8 out of 10 of those who do not already have solar panels say they would install solar if cost were not a factor. The study was commissioned by Sunrun and conducted online by Harris Interactive^® in February 2012 among 2,211 U.S. adults, of whom 1,475 were identified as homeowners.

While only 3 percent accurately understand that installing solar can cost less than $1,000 upfront, 4 out of 10 U.S. adults (40 percent) think it requires $20,000 or more in upfront costs, grossly overestimating the true cost of installing home solar.

In reality, installing solar can cost as little as zero dollars upfront because of an option known as solar power service. Sunrun invented this concept in 2007, and while dozens of companies now offer it, Sunrun remains the market leader. Sunrun owns, insures, monitors and maintains solar panels on a homeowner’s roof. Families pay a low rate for clean energy and ensure predictable electric costs for 20 years.

The vast majority of Americans are concerned about rising home energy costs from utility companies – 95 percent of U.S. adults who do pay and/or are aware of their utility costs cited their rising utility rates as a concern – yet homeowners remain paralyzed by misconceptions about what it costs to install solar. The survey indicates nearly 8 out of 10 (78 percent) U.S. homeowners who do not already have solar panels would install solar if cost were not a factor, and 44 percent would go solar within the next year if they knew cost were not a factor.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced that New York City has tripled its production of solar power by completing the installation of panels on city-owned buildings across the five boroughs. The 10 projects increase the city’s total solar production to 648 kW – enough to power 143 households.

The UK’s Department of Energy & Climate Change introduced a range of changes to the FITs scheme that came into effect on April 1, 2012 following a consultation at the end of last year. The changes will help ensure that current tariff levels for solar PV are more closely matched to installation costs, and that solar PV is considered as part of a whole-house approach to saving energy and carbon.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “These changes will help improve the Feed-in Tariffs scheme, ensuring it is a scheme for the many and not for the few. I am currently looking at how it can be further improved to offer certainty for householders, communities and industry and would welcome thoughts on our proposals.

“I want to see a bright and vibrant future for small scale renewable in the UK and allow each of the technologies to reach their potential where they can get to a point where they can stand on their own two feet without the need for subsidy sooner rather than later.”

A new tariff rate of 21p/kWh took effect for domestic size solar panels with an eligibility date on or after March 3 this year. Other tariff reductions also apply for larger installations.

§ Fuel Tech receives Multiple Orders for SNCR, ULTRA and Modeling

§ Global Power Equipment Group buys Koontz-Wagner Custom Controls Holdings