New York Earmarks $14.5 Million For Clean Energy Projects
The Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo is about to install a 200 kilowatt gas powered combined heat and power fuel cell during renovation of the 100 year old Old Lion House. The $1.16 million unit will provide power, hot water, and drive absorption chillers.
The Bronx Zoo project is one of 36 distributed generation and combined heat and power projects worth $14.5 million. The awards will support projects designed to increase clean, efficient generation capacity, and to support the development of improved generation technologies.
When cofunding for the projects is factored in, the 36 New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) projects represent a total investment of $90.5 million in distributed generation and combined heat and power projects.
Combined heat and power applications provide greater overall efficiency than centralized power plants deliver by taking advantage of the waste heat. The overall efficiency of a typical combined heat and power system is close to 75 percent, while the overall efficiency of centralized power plants is about 35 percent due to heat losses at centralized plants, and transmission losses in delivering power from the plant to the customer.
The combined heat and power systems will enable commercial, agricultural, and industrial energy users to generate their own electricity, while using waste heat from the electric generation equipment for space or water heating.
New York University will replace a nearly 30 year old combined heat and power system on their campus with the installation of a $45 million state of the art cogeneration plant that will reduce on-site energy costs, harmful air pollutants including greenhouse gas emissions, improve reliability and reduce peak load on the grid. NYSERDA is contributing $1 million to help the university install the new system.
NYSERDA Acting President Peter Smith said, “Since we initiated this program two years ago, there has been tremendous interest in combined heat and power from energy users throughout the state, because the technology provides greater control over energy costs, while also providing additional reliability and potential economic benefits in today’s power market.”
As evidence of the interest in combined heat and power, NYSERDA reviewed more than 117 proposals seeking $38 million in funding for $277 million worth of projects.
The 36 projects were selected after a rigorous technical evaluation of each proposal to determine the likelihood of success as well as the economic and environmental benefits associated with the proposed projects.
Provided by theEnvironmental News Service.