Advanced Energy Perspectives

This post is one in a series featuring the complete slate of advanced energy technologies outlined in the report This Is Advanced Energy. 

Nuclear power plants in operation today rely on nuclear fission (the splitting of heavy atomic nuclei) to produce electricity. Fission releases heat in the plant’s reactor core. This heat is used to generate steam, which then spins a steam turbine attached to an electric generator. Nuclear power plants are large facilities with individual reactors typically sized in the 1 GW range. The three-unit, 4 GW Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona is the country’s largest, generating enough power to meet the needs of 4 million homes and supplying electricity to customers of seven utilities across three states. Nuclear power is typically used for baseload generation, as the technology is not easy to start and stop or cycle up and down. Currently, the Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) and the Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) are the only two types of reactors in operation in the United States. Newer technologies (known as “Generation III” or “III+”) offer greater reliability and enhanced safety features, as well as higher efficiency.

This post is one in a series featuring the complete slate of advanced energy technologies outlined in the report This Is Advanced Energy. 

Image courtesy of AEE member Bosch.

Efficient appliances and electronics reduce energy use while delivering the same or superior performance. Together, appliances and electronics comprise 28% of annual energy costs for the average U.S. household, with large appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and clothes washers and dryers consuming nearly half of this energy. Energy use can be cut significantly by using efficient ENERGY STAR certified appliances and electronics, which consume 10% to 50% less energy than standard models. Some appliances exceed these savings: Efficient Bosch clothes washers use 60% less energy than the industry average while also cutting water use and thereby reducing water-related energy use. Increasingly, consumers can also choose smart appliances and electronics that are capable of responding to price and demand signals, such as programmable thermostats, smart refrigerators and other appliances, and smart power strips that turn off devices when they are not in use to avoid standby losses.

This post is one in a series featuring the complete slate of advanced energy technologies outlined in the report This Is Advanced Energy.  

Due to a lack of real-time data, grid operators have traditionally based grid management decisions on worst-case scenarios, resulting in inefficient performance. Over the past few years, transmission system operators have deployed synchrophasors to address this inefficiency. Synchrophasors are devices that measure the frequency, magnitude, and power factors (the alignment of voltage and current) of the grid with high speed and accuracy, then send the data back to control centers. Utilizing data time-stamped from GPS satellites, synchrophasors detect shifts in grid conditions in real time to improve management.

This post is one in a series featuring the complete slate of advanced energy technologies outlined in the report This Is Advanced Energy.  

Image courtesy of Waste Management.

Landfill gas (LFG) is a form of biogas produced by decomposition of organic waste in landfills. This gas is a roughly 50:50 mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, with smaller amounts of nitrogen and other compounds. LFG is produced naturally in all landfills, and can be captured and used for productive purposes instead of being vented or flared. In order to capture LFG, perforated tubes are inserted into the landfill. With existing landfills, the collection system must be added, but with new landfills the system can be installed as part of normal operations. After being extracted from the landfill using vacuum pumps, the LFG is compressed, dried, cleaned of certain contaminants, and used to power a gas turbine, a gas engine, such as GE’s Jenbacher landfill gas engine, or in some cases a boiler or steam turbine. As a rough rule-of-thumb, 1 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) in a landfill will produce enough LFG to produce 1 MW of electricity for about 20 years. LFG can also be used in combined heat and power systems (CHP), or used directly as an industrial process fuel if a suitable site exists near a landfill. With addition purification, LFG can be upgraded to a pipeline-quality substitute for natural gas, including compressed natural gas (CNG) for vehicles.