environmentalresearchweb blog

« Low Carbon Transport in Asia | Main | Hydraulic fracturing groundwater impacts can be informed by local water well operators »

Energy in Industry

In some industries, such as steel and aluminium production, energy is the main cost, so it is not surprising that, since it is increasingly expensive, efforts have been made to use it more efficiently. But in most industries, cost savings are possible, and have been made by careful attention to waste, new technology and improved process control. As well as saving money, using conventional fuels more efficiently can, by reducing the amount of energy needed, also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The UK Carbon Trust’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator is looking at fourteen industry sectors, and has identified energy, carbon and cost savings typically averaging 25-30%.

Energy supply companies are also gradually switching over to using renewables sources, so that the carbon content of the energy used by industry is falling. However some industries have adopted a more radical approach - actually generating green power themselves.

For example, Ford has installed 3 large 1.8MW wind turbines at its diesel engine plant in Dagenham, NE of London, supplied by green energy company Ecotricity. Ford say that ‘Green power from Ecotricity is saving Ford money and there are huge environmental benefits too. Thousands of tonnes of power station emissions are saved by switching our electricity source for the Dagenham Diesel Centre to wind power’ .

Ecotricity has also installed a series of 3 wind turbines at Avonmouth Docks near Bristol
and at a Sainsbury warehouse depot in East Kilbride in Scotland. Sainsbury seem very pleased with this involvement with wind power : ‘With this project, Ecotricity has helped us to meet our environmental goals and our energy needs. We have this fantastic state-of-the-art wind turbine on our site, which not only looks great but is providing almost half the depot’s electricity, with no carbon emissions and at a cheaper price’.

These are examples of what Ecotricity calls Merchant Wind Power. Ecotricity pays for everything from the feasibility stage, through planning and construction to lifelong operation and maintenance. It claims that it can supply power at less than the cost of conventional electricity, with a guarantee of lower electricity prices for up to 30 years.

The Bristol Port Company commented ‘Ecotricity has taken on the complex task of delivering this ambitious project, and we are delighted with the results. The three wind turbines are now delivering The Bristol Port Company with substantial environmental and financial savings.’

How can companies like Ecotricity do this? Firstly, on site power avoids having to pay for power to be delivered on the national grid from energy supply companies like E.ON and EDF. That avoids losses on long distance transmission and associated overhead costs. Secondly, renewable energy sources like wind power are rapidly becoming competitive in good sites, but still get a subsidy via the UK Renewables Obligation. Ecotricity gets Renewable Obligation Certificates for each MWh it supplies from its projects and these have a market value.

Will it spread?

It is actually quite common for large industrial estates estates to generate their own power, and also often heat, themselves, on site e.g. in medium scale combined heat and power plants, burning fossil fuel, e.g. gas. This can be cheaper than using power from the public supply. Using renewable sources like wind is just an extension of this idea, but adds an environmental bonus, and also protection from likely increases in fossil fuel costs. The fuel is free- and local. Analysis carried out by the UK Carbon Trust indicates that there is a strong case for businesses to produce their own renewable energy, with a potential for returns in excess of 20%.

And it’s not just wind. Where there is a large daytime energy demand e.g for office equipment, air-conditioning, refrigeration, PV solar can be very relevant. It is fast approaching price parity with conventional sources of power in some applications and locations.

PV arrays have been installed on company warehouse roof-tops, like the German discount store LIDL, with 1.2 MW on its Logistics centre, and the 2.42MW PV FedEx Ground Woodbridge distribution hub in New Jersey in the USA. Google is also moving into PV with 1.6MW so far installed. Coca-Cola’s Plant in Los Angeles, California has a 329 kW array.

PV is also being used increasingly in the automobile manufacturing and service sector e.g. General Motors has an 11.8 MW PV array at its plant at Zaragoza in Spain, Toyota’s parts centre in Belgium has 1.8MW, Goodyear Dunlop has 2.4 MW at its logistics centre Philippsburg, Germany. There’s also a 2.4MW Volkswagen roof at Wolfsburg, Germany.

Heating

Power production is not the only option. Heat from renewable sources is being supplied in some cases, for space and water heating e.g. solar preheating of the water needed for some industrial processes, or biomass heating for industrial processes.

The UNIDO assessment of the 2050 potential of renewables in industry says that by 2050 conventional solar heat collectors could be providing 5.6 EJ of process heat globally, while Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) using focused sunlight for high temperature heat, could add a further 2.4 EJ- making 8EJ in all, nearly 8% of total process heat needs.

However, biomass already provides over 8% industrial final energy, and UNIDO concluded that the use of biomass, primarily for process heat, has the potential to increase in the pulp and paper and the wood sectors to reach a global average share of 54% and 67% respectively of the total final energy use in each sector. It also suggests that, by 2050, biomass could constitute 22% of final energy use in the chemical and petrochemical sectors and that alternative fuels could constitute up to 30% of final energy use in the cement sector.

Globally, UNIDO suggests that up to 21% of all final energy use and feedstock in manufacturing industry in 2050 could be of renewable origin. This would constitute almost 50 exajoules a year (EJ/yr), out of a total industry sector final energy use of around 230 EJ/yr. This includes 37 EJ/yr from biomass feedstock and process energy and over 10 EJ/yr of process heat from solar thermal installations and heat pumps.

Obviously none of these renewable energy options would make sense unless attention had already be given to all the usual energy saving options- insulation, process efficiency upgrades and so on. And with solar /PV and wind you have to accept that they will not deliver power 24/7, so unless you have energy storage facilities, you still have to import power from the grid- although at times you may also be able to export excess power to pay for the imports. Biomass avoids this problem, but it has land-use and biodiversity limits.

What next?

While there are a range of renewable sources that can provide on site power directly for industrial activities, in many cases it will be more convenient and possibly more efficient to take power from large renewables projects linked up via the grid - e.g. large offshore wind farms, wave farms, tidal farms, or desert solar projects. And as the proportion of energy on the grid from these sources rises, the attraction of self-generation may decrease.

However industrial patterns may change, with new types of industry emerging, using renewables to make liquid and gaseous fuels, as well as heat and power- we are likely to see new industrial complexes using renewables to process a range of feedstocks.

This approach can be extended to a complete industrial ecosystem, e.g. recycling ‘waste’ outputs from industrial and agricultural processes as feedstock or energy inputs for other industries and users - cascading and integrating to increase overall materials and energy efficiency, and, where possible topping up with renewables to drive the system. As well as cutting cost ad emissions, innovation in industry can open up many new commercial opportunities in existing and new sectors.

Energy Efficiency in industry http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/emerging-technologies/current-focus-areas/ieea/pages/industrial-energy-efficiency-accelerator.aspx

Ecotricity: http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/for-your-business/on-site-wind-energy

The case for renewables in UK businesss: http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/Publications/pages/publicationdetail.aspx?id=CTA004

UNIDO report on Renewables in Industry globally: www.uncclearn.org/sites/www.uncclearn.org/files/unido05.pdf

The new UK Carbon Plan had some sensible things to say about energy and industry- it backed biomass CHP: www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/11/tackling-climate-change/carbon-plan/3702-the-carbon-plan-delivering-our-low-carbon-future.pdf

Posted by Dave Elliott on January 14, 2012 11:45 AM | Permalink