One of our core missions as a company is to explore the best energy options for our customers and for the environment. That’s why we are so pleased to work with the Energy Innovation Center, a Pittsburgh-based not-for-profit organization whose mission is “to engage corporate and community leaders, align workforce development and education, develop and demonstrate technology, and incubate businesses to support emerging clean and sustainable energy markets.” In short, the EIC acts as a “living laboratory” for education and training programs. It also allows new and innovative clean energy technologies to be tested in a real-life environment, so we can better understand how those technologies might meet the demands of different markets and audiences.
When we first partnered up with the EIC, we realized that the building itself provided a perfect opportunity to incorporate an exciting natural gas technology. And over the past two years, we’ve helped the EIC to integrate microturbines into their power system. Microturbines are small, extremely efficient electricity generators that burn gas and liquid fuels. The EIC will be utilizing these microturbines in a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system, which generates electricity and thermal energy in a single process. The heat that would normally be wasted can actually be recovered, avoiding energy loss from separate generation. In the EIC’s system, the microturbines will burn waste gases from electricity generation—which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere—to power the building’s hot water system. While conventional methods of producing heat and power separately has a typical combined efficiency of around 40%, this CHP system is projected to work at closer to 80% efficiency.
Though the initiative is inherently linked to the development of clean energy technology, this was not necessarily the EIC’s primary goal for the project. The EIC works closely with their corporate partners to understand and respond to market demands with innovative solutions. A more efficient energy system has obvious commercial benefits, in addition to that of being environmentally friendly. With all systems operating, the whole building’s energy efficiency is projected to increase by 20%.
The installation is well underway, and the EIC expects to see a return on their investment in 5 years. This project epitomizes the EIC’s “living laboratory” model, and helps to promote the application of microturbines, CHP systems, and other clean energy solutions on large, corporate scale. By showing more and more people what this technology can do, we can help to move our region towards more sustainable power and energy practices.
The Energy Innovation Center is not the only building currently testing microturbine use in CHP systems. A smaller-scale version is currently being used as Chatham University’s Eden Hall Campus, which uses sustainable technologies and methods to model new energy approaches and is currently a net-zero campus, meaning they produce as much energy as they consume. However, the EIC is unique in that it works to promote these technologies on an industrial scale. They are paving the way for a more widespread use of clean energy solutions, and we are excited to continue supporting their efforts.
For more information on the Energy Innovation Center, visit their website.