New York City Mayor Bloomberg Announces New Rule for Microturbine Deployment

[jpak]

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/882813/

CHATSWORTH, Calif., Dec 04, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- CPST | charts | news | PowerRating -- Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.microturbine.com) (NASDAQ:CPST), the world's leading clean technology manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, today announced that New York City has implemented the country's first standard for the use and installation of microturbine technology.

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The new rule was published in yesterday's City Record and takes effect immediately. The rule will help New York meet its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions citywide by 30% between now and 2030, and it will help spur the real estate and development communities to build more efficient, greener projects moving forward.

"Capstone has been cooperating with the Cogeneration Task Force for more than a year to get this new standard written and on the books," stated Jim Crouse, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Capstone Turbine Corporation. "This has been a substantial undertaking by our employees, partners and consultants to work collaboratively with the Cogeneration Task Force in meeting the New York building codes and Fire Department safety guidelines," Crouse added.

Buildings in New York City generate 79% of the city's greenhouse gas emissions. By supplying on-site power generation to buildings, microturbine systems provide an energy-efficient supplement to power plants, New York City's conventional power supply. Building owners are now enabled to take advantage of Capstone's microturbine technology, which will help the City reach its PlaNYC goal of expanding clean distributed power generation citywide.

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[MADem]

Are these those can shaped fans that Jay Leno has on his garage?

[DCKit]

3. No, that's a wind turbine....

These use natural or LP gas. It's a big box with all kinds of complicated tubing and a kind of jet engine inside.

I've been familiar with Capstone for a long time, even made a bundle off their stock a ways back, and am not sure why these are being used. Most power plants using gas turbines - jet engines, actually, for peak power production - are pretty damn efficient. However, to make the jet engines or the Capstone turbines truly cost-effective, the waste heat needs to be drawn off for water and space heating or absorption cooling (AC). Without that, it's just a localized source of peak power and not very efficient.

Plumbing these things into the building systems isn't going to be cheap, but if they take full advantage of the electricity and waste heat, neither the building owners or the city will be sorry they did it.

On edit, a couple of links about Jay Leno's PacWind turbines:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/4216780.html?series=11

http://google.de/trends/hottrends?q=pacwind&date=2007-11-12&sa=X

[MADem]

4. Ahhh! Thanks for that explanation--I was totally off the track, wasn't I?

I suppose if they do it enough, the cost will go down--they'll find a way to exploit efficiencies in the installation process. If it makes the air a bit cleaner, that'll help...next, get rid of all those gasoline CARS that stink up the joint!

[MADem]

1. Pardon my hypersensitive mouse... nt

[silverweb]

2. An excellent step in the right direction.

A problem as big as global warming is going to take lots of innovative solutions. This is one of them. :thumbsup:

[philb]

5. The author of article didn't understand the real deal - use of waste heat on site to give high effic

iency

Higer efficiency for the electricity, then also use of waste heat for heating, cooling(chillers), hot water,etc.
As much as 90% efficiency compared to 30% to 40% off the grid.