Overview

GreenWing’s commitment to develop clean energy technology includes the development of highly efficient combustion turbine facilities. These modern, base-load facilities displace inefficient, conventional coal production and support the development of wind energy by ensuring there is capacity available when the wind does not blow. Wind energy cannot be integrated smoothly into the North American electricity grid without a source of base load generation and combustion turbine plants are the cleanest solution.

Combustion turbine and cogeneration plants provide another important, unique environmental benefit – the deferment or elimination of new transmission lines. Because combustion turbine plants have a small footprint and flexible fuel delivery, they can be located close to load centres, overcoming what is proving to be the most contentious part of supplying electricity – the construction of large transmission lines.

The concurrent generation of heat and power in one thermodynamic process, cogeneration, or CHP (Combined Heat and Power) uses waste steam from electric power generation to produce a heating source. At the same time, excess heat from an industrial process is channeled to power an electric generator.

Cogeneration involves a broad spectrum of technologies, including combustion turbine, biomass, and other solid fuels. Its operation is fundamentally based on the use of one of these technologies as an electric generator combined with a heat recovery procedure.

Cogeneration delivers many benefits. It is, for instance, far more efficient than conventional power generation, which can lose upwards of 50% of its energy potential in the form of waste heat. Switching to cogeneration clearly offers savings to commercial and domestic consumers. Like other forms of green energy, cogeneration produces minimal greenhouse gas emissions. Readily available biomass and other waste products can also be used as fuels for cogeneration initiatives, thereby increasing cost-effectiveness even further and decreasing waste disposal requirements. The advance of cogeneration technology also results in job creation – a welcome development at the community level.

Finally, it bears noting that because cost-effective electricity accounts for most of cogeneration’s profitability, demand for the efficient use of recovered heat becomes a key issue.