Tag Archive for: Plants

Using molten salt to store electricity isn’t just for solar thermal plants

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How can we make wind a more versatile energy source? By adding storage.

How can we make wind a more versatile energy source? By adding storage. (credit: Germanborrillo)

An energy storage startup that found its footing at Alphabet’s X “moonshot” division announced last week that it will receive $ 26 million in funding from a group of investors led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a fund that counts Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg as investors, and whose chairman is Bill Gates. The startup, called Malta, uses separate vats of molten salt and antifreeze-like liquid to store electricity as thermal energy and dispatch it to the grid when it’s needed.

Malta’s system stores electricity by taking that electricity, using a heat pump to convert the electricity to heat, and storing that heat in molten salt. Then, when electricity is needed again, the system reunites the molten salt with the cold fluid, using a heat engine to reconvert the thermal energy to electricity, which can be sent back to the grid.

The concept is outlined in a July 2017 paper in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, which states that “Round-trip efficiency…is found to be competitive with that of pumped hydroelectric storage.” [Update: Ars is seeking a number more specific to Malta’s system and will update again when that number is made available.] Pumped hydroelectric storage is one of the oldest forms of electricity storage, using electricity when it’s cheap and plentiful to pump water up a hill, and then releasing that water through hydroelectric turbines when electricity is expensive and scarce.

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Biz & IT – Ars Technica

Gigawatts of planned natural gas plants despite low electricity prices

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Enlarge / SMITH TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA – OCTOBER 25: A view from private farmland shows a natural gas cryogenic processing plant under construction October 25, 2017 in Smith Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania. The cryogenic plant is owned by Energy Transfer Partners, ETP, one of the nation’s largest natural gas and propane companies. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images) (credit: Getty Images)

Despite plummeting wholesale electricity prices in some areas of the US as well as essentially flat electricity demand in recent years, natural gas and renewable capacity is still being built.

In 2016, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) notes, natural gas-fired electric generation in the US increased by 3.4 percent; non-hydroelectric renewables like wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal increased by 15.7 percent; and conventional hydroelectric power grew by 7.5 percent. Coal electric generation, on the other hand, fell by 8.4 percent in 2016.

Those numbers only reflect the share of electricity generated by a certain type of fuel, not necessarily how many new power plants came online in 2016. But the natural gas expansion looks like it’s still gaining ground in certain areas of the country. According to The Wall Street Journal, at least two power plant companies—Invenergy and Calpine—are going all-out on building natural gas capacity in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Between those two states, Invenergy and Calpine are set to increase natural gas capacity by 8.6 gigawatts between 2018 and 2020.

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Biz & IT – Ars Technica

As Irma approaches nuclear plants in Florida, lessons from Andrew resonate

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Enlarge / The Energy Information Administration’s “Energy Disruption’s Map” as of Saturday morning. You can check out the interactive map at www.eia.gov/special/disruptions. (credit: Energy Information Administration)

In advance of Hurricane Irma, officials from Florida Power and Light (FPL) announced on Thursday that the utility would start shutting down the state’s only two nuclear power plants—Turkey Point, just south of Miami, and St. Lucie, north of West Palm Beach—as a safety measure.

The Turkey Point plant seems to be closest to the hurricane’s probable path according to the latest models. It has two reactors, each capable of 693 megawatts of output while operational. The plant was built in 1972, so Irma won’t be its first Category 5 hurricane. In 1992, the eye of Hurricane Andrew passed right over Turkey Point.

At the time, Turkey Point didn’t sustain any structural damage to its most sensitive facilities, despite facing sustained winds up to 145 miles per hour and gusts as strong as 175mph. The Miami Herald writes that Turkey Point’s nuclear reactors “are encased in six feet of steel-reinforced concrete and sit 20 feet above sea level.” According to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report published in 1993, damage to the “safety-related systems” at Turkey Point during Hurricane Andrew was limited to “minor water intrusion and some damage to insulation and paint.” No radioactive release occurred, either.

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Biz & IT – Ars Technica

German nuclear plant’s fuel rod system swarming with old malware – Ars Technica

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Ars Technica

German nuclear plant's fuel rod system swarming with old malware
Ars Technica
But much more destructive malware could have easily been introduced over USB drives in a targeted attack. Stuxnet was introduced into an Iranian nuclear research facility's "air-gapped" network by way of a USB drive, and Flame and some "wiper" malware …

and more »

flame malware – read more