Page 8 RAIN October 1978 Ten percent of industrial process heat could be solar-derived by 2000, according to "Solar Energy for Agriculture & Industrial Process Heat" (ERDA 76-78). The Mitre Corporation predicts that by 2000 solar process heat will supply 2 quads, or 23 percent of its potential market at an average cost of $4.50 per mbtu compared to $4.30 for.coal, $5.90 for oil and $16 for electricity. Economics of solar process heat is , tied to temperature. About a quarter of all industrial process heat is below 177°F., nearly with_in range of flat plate collectors, while 40 percent (8 percent of national energy,use) is below 350~F. A not y1et released study by the Cong. Ofc. of Technology Assessment (contact Henry Kelly, 212/224-5681) predicted that below 350° solar would be competitive with oil if oil's price increased 50 percent and with gas if gas's price doubled. Kelly pointed out that cheap liquid fuels have resulted in higher than necessary temperatures for process heat, and that no study has looked for areas where industry could reduce temperatures. • For greatest efficiency, the app;opriate solar technology sho1;1ld be used to achieve a given temperature-. The simple solar "shallow ponds" are capable of producing 150°, suitable for low-temperature industry; familiar flat plate collectors can raise liquids dose to boiling; evacuated tube collectors can bring.tempeqtures to nearly 300°.; and concentrating collectors can produce around 500°. For processes which must have electricity (8 percent national energy budget, see Lovins, Foreign Affairs, Oct. 76), wind, photovoltaics, or steam generated from wood or biomass may be suitable, depending on circumstances. Solar can be more attractive to business than homeowners because 1).businesses use life-cycle costing and are not intimidated by high first cost;_2) industries use process heat all year and 'collect three times as m.uch heat annually per unit area as homeowners. , • Passive solar is cheapest for low-temperature industry. Shallow ponds are being used for uranium milling in NM in a prototype system at $7/sq. ft. At about $5/sq. ft.-, cost would be equivalent to $14/bbl oil. Warehouse heating with by David Holzman . The good folks at Citizens' Energy Project in D.C. keep turning out some of the best coverage of energy developments around. This excerpt from their monthly newsletter, People and Energy, is a good reminder·tbat household bot water ~eaters and home.beati_ng ovly scratch the surface ofwhat is·already happening with solq.r energy. People & Energy is $JO/year from Citizens' Energy Project, 1413 K St.,.N. W., 8th Floor_, Washington, DC 20005. Write also for list of other publications. -TB passive Kalwall panels is on the rise. A 120,000 sq. ft. building at Plover, Wisconsin, the biggest in the state, is 95 percent solar heated; and a 1920s vintage factory in Manchester, New Hampshire, was retrofitted; and a waste-water treatment facility in Maine is passively heated (contact Solar c·omponents Div., Kalwall Corp., 88 Pine St., Manchester, NH 03103). Most of the collectors used for both household and industry are flat plate collectors. The largest solar hot water system • in the country is a flat plate system for an industrial laundry. 6500 sq. ft. of collectors supply ~6 percent of the energy to heat 66,000 gallons daily to 180° at the Red Star Industrial Service in Fresno, California. In Canton, Michigan, .40 percent heating for a 50,000 board-foot capacity lumber kiln with . 2500 sq. ft. of collector. Solar flat plate collectors pasteurize beer at Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis and they bottle coke in Ohio. · The DOE-sponsored Campbell's Soup canning plant system in Sacramento, California, uses flat plate collectors in tandem with parabolic collectors-which provide a final boost to 180- • 190°. A 20,000 gallon tank stores water for the night shift. The Nexcel Corporation uses concentrating collectors to make concentrating collectors at their Arizona plant (contact Geo. Branch, 11711 Dublin Blvd, Duplin, CA 94566). Biomass can also provide direct process heat, or steam for process or electricity. Wood current,ly provides half as much energy nationwide as nuclear plants, and biomass could supply three quads for industry by 2000 (see program announcement for the Biomass Program, available from DOE). It's well on its way. In Hawaii, the Hilo Coast Processing Company (Pepeekeo Mill, HI) supplies 20 percent of the Big Island's electricity for U/kwh from steam generated by burning dried sugar cane.· At Eugene, Oregon, the Eugene Water & Electric Board fuels its 33 Mw generator with forest residues, saving $2.16 million annually over oil~burning. Air pollution has been reduced. The 2~-residerit hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, will soon be burning wood to generate electricity, as Burlington, Vermont's utility is doing. (21 of these are in Biomass Energy Success Stories, No. HCP/T0285-01; inquire price from USGPO, Washington, DC 20402). Methanol, which has. been used in car engines, is a candidate for driving turbines. AMAX & TPM (a United Tech: subsidiary) tested methanol in a.turbine for 12 hours at up to 18.5 Mw, finding that nitrogen emissions and maintenance costs could be lower. Biogas of Colorado (562 Kendall Ct., Arvada, 80002) is.producing pipeline quality methane from catt.le waste (P&E 2/78). Wind could generate a quad for industry by 2000, much inore by 2020 according to Frank Eldridge of Mitre Corp. . Few government programs exist to encourage solar use in ii:tdus~ry. DOE's '78 budget is a paltry $8 million, large chunks of which go to.programs tha.t are less cost-effective than they ~ould be. Rep. Bedell (D-IA) is trying to set up a loan program m the Small Business Administration for solar, conservation and other alternative energies (HR 11-713, contact Marie Yager • in Bedell's office at 202/225-5476). •
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