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"Macau Matters: MCHP - Something for Macau?
09/01/2013 08:31:00 Richard Whitfield
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By now, everybody in Macau should be aware of the Global Warming Problem - burning fossil fuels for electricity generation and transportation releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere which cannot be absorbed by trees because of falling forest cover around the world. This has led to the atmosphere absorbing more sunlight which is heating up the planet to disturb weather patterns and melt the polar ice-caps. A very big problem for future generations, which is getting worse day by day.
This problem is stimulating strong promotion of alternative energy systems for electricity generation (mostly wind, solar thermal and photovoltaic) and electric vehicles. Even regarding fossil fuels it is leading to more use of gas fired power stations, rather than coal or oil fired electricity production because gas burns cleanlier and produces relatively less carbon dioxide (and other waste gases).
In Macau the power station is mostly oil fired and in the region most power stations burn coal. Not good for the environment. There are some nuclear power stations in the region, which do not release carbon dioxide, but they have other problems – radioactive wastes, which can be very nasty.
One emerging technology in the alternative energy area that I like is called micro Combined Heat and Power, or mCHP for short. I own shares in Ceramic Fuel Units – www.cfcl.com.au – one of the most advanced companies making this kind of equipment. They have a product called Bluegen, which is designed for home use. It is the size of a small refrigerator and uses town gas to produce up to 3kW of electricity (which is enough to run a typical house) and heat for making hot water (enough for typical household needs).
This kind of product has several advantages compared to conventional centralized power stations. Firstly, the heat, which is usually just wasted in centralized power stations, is used for making domestic hot water, thus saving energy. Also, because the unit is located at the point of electricity consumption, electricity transmission losses are minimized. Conventional power stations have an energy conversion efficiency of 30%-40%, while mCHP conversion efficiencies can be above 65%.
Thirdly, Bluegen units do not burn gas, they use a catalysed chemical reaction to directly create electricity and heat. This means there are no moving parts so the system is much more reliable than a conventional power station, which burns gas to make steam which rotates a turbine which then rotates an electricity generator (so that you have many moving parts that eventually wear out and have to be replaced). And finally, each Bluegen or other mCHP unit is small so that it is easy to incrementally add capacity as needed, eliminating the large initial capital investment needed to build a conventional power station to meet future demand growth.
Yet another interesting thing with Bluegen and similar products is that they can be connected together via the Internet to be centrally controlled to create a “virtual” power station. Depending on the demand within a neighborhood the mCHP units can be turned up or down by a central computer to adjust the amount of power generated.
All these benefits have led several countries, especially Germany, Great Britain, Holland, and elsewhere to offer subsidies for people wanting to install mCHP systems in their homes. In Macau we could do the same thing and significantly reduce the whole region’s carbon footprint, if only we had town gas and the laws about individuals generating electricity were changed.
Town gas has supposedly been coming to Macau for years and there have been many complaints about the delays. Many people are also starting to call for changes to the electricity laws as soon as CEM’s franchise come up for renewal, although they keep on extending it. We deserve better and should be leading the region for environmentally friendly electricity generation, including using mCHP technology.
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Cheers