Attached is information about the senior design project presentations scheduled for next Tuesday.
The project that we have been helping with is scheduled to present at 8:30 on Tuesday in 4100 LuMEB, Abbott Enerdrape System.
Mike Larson
Hi Rob and Tony,
Tim Mies asked me who “owns” the RECs from small scale solar arrays at individual buildings. I said I’d have to check into it.
At first I thought all RECs are owned by central campus (UES), but then I questioned myself. For a rooftop solar array, we don’t include it in the M-RETS program, and at ECE, we only “sold” them the solar farm 2.0 RECs. We let them count their rooftop solar directly and they have the DOR accordingly.
So is it appropriate to tell him that the RECs associated with the 14.7 kW array he is planning to install at the Energy Farm (not the SCAPES project) will be considered “used” at the Energy Farm?
I would caution that we do not want individual departments to get into selling RECs, without a much broader discussion. So perhaps we should say that he can use/retire them at his site, but he cannot sell them without further discussion?
What do you recommend?
Thanks,
Morgan
-----------------------------
Good questions. I think that if the department “owns” the REC, then they should also be able to sell the REC. I am interested in others views on the topic, and agree that it would lend to a much broader discussion.
Rob Roman
----------------------------
I agree that a broader discussion would be helpful.
Best,
Tony
A representative from the News-Gazette reached out to Steve Breitwieser with questions regarding Abbot Power Plant:
Please also see the attached spreadsheet with data on steam supplied buildings.
Hi Kathy,
Abbott Power Plant generates all district heating and almost 275,000
megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity each year using a high-efficiency
cogeneration process, which simultaneously produces both steam and
electricity. When the campus load for heat is highest during the
winter months, the plant, along with the two utility-scale solar
farms, provides almost all the electricity that the campus needs,
with the remainder coming from wind energy that is imported onto the
campus grid. Throughout the year, Abbott's sustainable cogeneration
process supplies approximately
85 percent of the total energy demand (steam and electricity) for the
Urbana campus, which includes almost 50 percent of the overall electricity usage. The electricity not generated at Abbott, from
on-site solar arrays, or acquired through a wind power purchase
agreement is purchased through Prairieland Energy, a corporation
solely owned by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. More
information about utilities production is available at https://fs.illinois.edu/services/utilities-energy/production.
Happy Holidays!
Steve B.
--------------------------------------------
Hi, Steve. As I'm assembling this week's column, I have several
follow-up
questions:
Can you clarify what's meant by "district heating"?
Does most of the steam generated by the cogeneration process end up
heating some of the older buildings on campus? (I spent 20+ years in
Mumford Hall and remember the sounds the pipes made at certain times of year.)
Any idea of approximately what percentage of the campus' interior spaces are still heated with ssssssteam heat?
I took a look at the website you mentioned, and have a couple of questions
about that: What does UES stand for? And the website says, "During low
campus demand for both heat and air conditioning, Abbott typically
burns natural gas. During the winter months, when the campus heat load
is highest, a combination of both coal and natural gas is necessary."
Is that information still accurate? (I thought the coal scrubbers were
no longer in use on campus...?)
If it's not possible to get answers to me this week, that's OK; I can hold the item for next week.
Thank you,
KR
---------------------------------------
Hi Kathy,
I'll follow up on these in greater detail when everyone returns next week.
UES is the acronym for the Utilities & Energy Services division that is within Facilities & Services. District heating is referencing the process used to distribute steam from Abbott to campus facilities through underground pipes.
Steve B.
---------------------------------------
Mike/Dave,
There were a couple of follow of questions to this media inquiry from the NG before the break. Can you help clarify the highlighted sections by Wednesday with any additional information? For the interior spaces question, let me know if you can explain that more precisely – on our website we say “More than 250 campus buildings use the steam produced at Abbott for their heating.” The UMP also indicates: From discussions with U of I staff, approximately 85% of the campus condensate is returned to APP (if that would be something to note from a process standpoint along with an explanation like below).
Abbott uses gas turbines, natural gas-fired boilers, and coal fired boilers, recovering reject heat from electric generation to help produce steam. The plant pipes steam underground across campus to provide buildings with space heating, domestic hot water, sterilization, and more. Once used, the steam condenses into water and returns to the plant where it is recycled and reused.
I could respond to the fuel item with what we have said previously…
When the campus load for heat is highest during the winter months, natural gas and coal are utilized to meet the significant energy demand. The coal-fired
boilers are also a part of research efforts, primarily related to carbon capture technology. Additionally, maintaining fuel flexibility provides the university operational reliability and the ability to respond to market factors for purchased utilities.
Thanks for helping out with some more detail on this one.
Steve B.
-----------------------------------------
Mark/Dave,
Do you guys or maybe steam distribution know approximately what percentage of campus buildings are still on steam heat?
Thanks
David Hardin
------------------------------
I have not seen a list. We will ask Steam.
When time allows maybe we could add a column to note the steam yes or no. Hmmmmm Elizabeth stated Keith Erickson had a list and she recalls some sort of building database that listed utilities per building such as steam, electricity from Abbot or Ameren, gas etc. It would be nice to find this.
Dave
---------------------------------
Mike/Frank,
Are you guys aware of the list/database Dave referenced below and if so where it is located?
Thanks
--------------------------------
David,
I would think that EBS would provide a list of building that are served with steam, based on the meters in EBS.
Tony and/or Kate,
Can you clarify/confirm how many buildings on campus are served with steam from EBS? The email string below indicates that the Util. Master Plant said over 250 buildings are served by steam from Abbott. Is that still the case?
Mike Larson
------------------------------
According to EBS, there are 175 active steam meters. Some buildings have multiple meters so there would be fewer buildings than that.
Thanks,
Kate Brewster
------------------------
Anthony should be able to run a query that will give us an exact number from our last billing cycle.
Regards,
Tony
-----------------------------
As of our last EBS billing the count is 147. I have attached the file that supports this number for your reference.
Regards,
Tony
------------------------------
Below is an email from Sebestiano Geirdinella:
Hi Rob, Mike, Morgan,
I know that winter has just arrived so you must be having your hands full, but I wanted to contact you as there is now a DOE call for proposals for Long Duration Energy Storage Demos.
The Demo favors teams composed of industry / commercial partners with academic institutions. Pressure Corp has manifested their continued willingness to serve as commercial / industrial partner.
If our proposal is successful, it would allow us to consider other aspects to the project that would otherwise be too expensive to include into commercial contract without partial federal funding, such as: a) waste heat recovery from Abbott Power Plant, b) an alternate arrangement that includes providing cooling using the expander colder gas exhaust during summer, and c) including the expander at Curtis Road pressure regulation station (it could cover the roughly 3000 ft of electrical interconnection).
As part of the proposal preparation process, we feel it might have value to organize a visit to Abbott Power Plant with Pressure Corp, with the purpose of discussing technical, contractual and sustainability aspects relevant to the Compressed Natural Gas Energy Storage demonstration project:
It would be ideal to schedule the visit within the next couple of weeks, since we need to submit a Letter of Intent for DOE by the second week of December, but we are subject to your availability.
Please let us know if you have preferred dates.
Thanks and regards,
SEBASTIANO GIARDINELLA
From: Marta Monti <marta@midwestrenew.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2022 4:34 PM
To: White, Morgan <mbwhite at illinois.edu>
Subject: Solar Urbana-Champaign is back!
|
ISTC researchers recently validated a system that can achieve up to 95% efficiency in CO₂ capture, significantly reducing the environmental impact of coal-fired power plants. The research team tested the technology at Abbott Power Plant.
Industry decarbonization & carbon capture were identified as high priority efforts to reduce climate change at the 2021 UN COP26. Renewable energy may help, but there are still sectors that remain hard to decarbonize such as distributed emissions from travel & flu gas emissions from steel and cement, & more. This talk will discuss direct air capture of CO2 from the atmosphere to curb emissions.
March 24, 12–1 pm
Elizabeth Meschewski • Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
The Energy iCAP team met on Friday, October 29th to discuss the proposed plan to construct a micro-modular nuclear reacter on campus. Several guests were invited to speak about the pros and cons of the issue.
Helpful Links
The Daily Illini published an article about the impacts of covid-19 on the campus sustainability efforts. One key message is that, even with some delays associated with the pandemic, we are still determined to move forward. The conclusion of the article says:
Mohamed Attalla, executive director of Facilities and Services, said there are lots of initiatives to reach carbon neutrality in terms of energy and hopes to reach 400,000 metric tons of CO2 this year.
Attalla said the addition of a third solar farm, advances in geothermal energy and research in carbon capture contribute to achieving carbon neutrality and that long-term, COVID-19 should not be a problem.
“Maybe we’re behind a little in implementing some projects, but we’ll be able to catch up,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a long-term impact on the iCAP implementation.”
White also said she doesn’t anticipate any long-term problems with achieving the iCAP goals and believes it’s important for the University to lead by example when it comes to sustainability.
“I really believe that accomplishing the iCAP goals is something we can do, we need to do and we will do,” she said.
“Climate change isn’t waiting for us,” Edwards said. “(The University is) the laboratory for science, for humanities, for arts … all those kinds of things show what is possible of humanity.”
“If we’re going to call ourselves leaders, then we need to lead,” he said.
https://dailyillini.com/covid-10/2020/12/08/covid-19-pandemic-impacts-un...
The DOE has awarded $25M to a three-year project, led by Kevin O'Brien at the Prairie Research Institute, for the design of a next-generation power plant that "combines multiple techniques to both reduce emissions and capture and re-use carbon dioxide." -- from: https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/1950450895.html
OBrien and co-principal investigator Mohamed Attalla, director of U of I Facilities & Services, and ISTC project manager Les Gioja lead the project, providing combined expertise in power generation technologies, clean-energy generation, and large-scale construction. -- from: https://blogs.illinois.edu/view/7447/1913312422
This webinar will discuss a series of proposed & finalized amendments to rules promulgated by the US EPA to the Coal Combustion Residuals Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Rule. This presentation will summarize the analysis from EPA’s Composite Model for Leachate Migration with Transformation Products and contextualize that output with the USWAG Decision and the 2020 Rulemaking efforts.
October 8, 11 am–12 pm • Map
Jen Miller • Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
"Why doesn't the company installing the solar panels at U of I put them over the parking lot? I would provide shade for the cars underneath and would eliminate having to kill whatever would be underneath them in the fields."
The best option for building solar panels is ground-mounted, said Morgan White, the associate director for sustainability at the University of Illinois.
"As part of our Climate Leadership Commitments the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a goal of producing at least 25,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) per year from on-campus solar," she said. "When we evaluated options for meeting this goal, rooftop solar, solar over parking areas, and ground-mounted solar were all considered. The most cost-effective option is ground-mounted solar, and it also allows for larger-scale installations.
"For a sense of the scale, the two solar farms will be a total of 75 acres, while the largest parking lot on campus is less than 15 acres.
"When installing solar panels over parking areas, there are additional infrastructure and labor costs to raise the solar panels above the ground level. Although we do not currently have any solar over parking areas, Facilities & Services is working with the Parking Department to evaluate potential locations for a pilot installation. We are also continuing to install rooftop solar on individual buildings."
Solar panels are on the following five Urbana campus buildings:
— Business Instructional Facility
— the Activities & Recreation Center
— Wassaja Residence Hall
— University High School Gymnasium
— Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Building.
"I'd also like to emphasize that the ground-mounted solar panels do not harm the plants under them. After building the first Solar Farm, we learned that there was an excellent opportunity for growing useful plants under and around the panels," said White. "This is a great opportunity for creating a multi-functional ecosystem, with pollinator supportive plants and protected areas for small animals and insects."
The Energy SWATeam's early October meeting involved discussions on the draft 2020 iCAP Objectives created by the SWATeam members.
For all of our buildings with renewable energy systems, we employ a net metering method. We deduct the energy supplied by the system from the building load on the campus grid. So, if ECE uses about 250,000 kwh of electricity per month, and the rooftop array will supply 10,000 kwh per month, then the net bill for the ECE building will be 240,000 kwh at the campus electricity rate. Therefore, the building gets full credit for the energy supplied by the array.
There are still a dozen or so cooling towers on campus, and ISTC staff are meeting with related building representatives later this month to review the options for reducing water consumption in these towers.
The Illini Union has demolished its old cooling towers for HVAC in the past 15 years, and recently demolished the old evaporator cooling system for the refrigeration chilling water in 2017. Almost all of our HVAC is now on DDC, with the exception of AHU’s 1, 2, & 3 in the South Building attic, and AHU-21 in the North Building NW subbasement.
There is a grant for helping libraries go green, which could potentially support solar at the Oak Street facility.
EBSCO has expanded this year’s EBSCO Solar Grant. For the first time, it will provide three $100,000 grants to libraries looking to install solar arrays. If you’re eager to show your community the benefits of solar energy or to add to your sustainability plans, consider applying to the EBSCO Solar Grant now through April 30th. The winner will be announced on June 22nd, 2018, both online and at ALA Annual 2018.
