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Alternative Energy Blog

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Blog - Post List

Alternative Energy Blog: Securing Ovation Systems per NERC CIP Standards

Jim Cahill

In the Emerson Exchange 365 community, I saw a post announcing a February 16-17, 2012 Regional Technical Forum for Ovation system users. I got my hands on a few of the presentations, which I hope to share with you over the next few weeks. Emerson’s Mike...
- 14 Feb 2012
Power Blog: Is Natural Gas the New Alternative Energy Source?

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Douglas Morris of the alternative energy industry team, explores how the abundance of natural gas is generating discussions around the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standards and alternative energy-based processes. About a month...
- 10 Feb 2012
Power Blog: More Efficient, Wood-Based Biomass Energy Production

Jim Cahill

Many power producers have goals to use renewable resources in their electrical energy mix—by either regulation or economic incentive. At the ARC Industry Forum this week in Orlando, Minnesota Power’s Luther Kemp presented the company’s plans to expand...
- 8 Feb 2012
Power Blog: The Boom and Bust Cycle in Renewable Energy

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Alan Novak, director of the alternative energy industry team, explores the role of government policy in renewable energy’s boom and bust cycles. As Doug Morris mentioned last week, the renewable fuels market is facing...
- 3 Feb 2012
Power Blog: US Energy Policy: What Happened to Advanced Biofuels?

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Douglas Morris of the alternative energy industry team highlights his impressions from this week’s U.S. State of the Union address as it applies to alternative energy: Being that it’s State of the Union time, I thought it would be curious to...
- 27 Jan 2012
Power Blog: Control Architecture for Solar Photovoltaic Plants

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Jim Cushman, a member of the Power & Water Solutions business, looks at the process control architecture requirements for solar photovoltaic-based power generation. Early developers of solar photovoltaic (PV) did not consider...
- 20 Jan 2012
Power Blog: Changes to the Ethanol Tax Structure

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Douglas Morris of the alternative energy industry team shares his thoughts on the impact on recently expired US ethanol tariffs. This just in, there is a budget battle going on in Washington, DC. Okay, so the budget disagreements...
- 13 Jan 2012
Power Blog: Impact of Shale Gas on Coal Conversion Technologies

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Alan Novak, leader of the Alternative Energy industry team, explores how the rapid increase in shale production has impacted coal conversion, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and Substitute Natural Gas (SNG) in today’s guest post. A few weeks ago...
- 6 Jan 2012
Power Blog: Solar Photovoltaic Growing Pains

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Jim Cushman, a member of the Power & Water Solutions team, describes the challenges utilities and independent system operators (ISOs) face in regulating power on the grid with the increasing number of solar photovoltaic...
- 16 Dec 2011
Power Blog: Plentiful Natural Gas—Impact on US Process Manufacturing

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Alternative Energy industry group leader, Alan Novak, shares the opportunity that shale gas provides to the U.S. economy and the process manufacturing industries: A new energy source has emerged and is changing the shape...
- 9 Dec 2011
Power Blog: Inflation or Growth: A Crossroad in China

Jim Cahill

In this guest blog post, Emerson’s Douglas Morris addresses economic conditions in China and their impact on alternative energy investments, particularly coal to liquids processes. We’ve had a number of posts about the need for energy in emerging markets...
- 2 Dec 2011
Power Blog: 100 US Dollar Per Barrel Oil is Back and What it May Mean

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Alan Novak, leader of the alternative energy and metals & mining industry teams, offers his thoughts on the reemergence of $100 USD/barrel oil. While no one was looking, oil (West Texas Intermediate – WTI) has slowly crept back to $100/barrel...
- 18 Nov 2011
Power Blog: Alternative Energy Projects in Valuable Niches

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Douglas Morris, a member of the alternative energy team, shares his observations from the recent Advanced Biofuels Markets conference and Advanced Biofuels Association (ABFA) board meeting. The 2011 Advanced Biofuels Markets conference and ABFA...
- 11 Nov 2011
Power Blog: Understanding Energy Security and Efficiency

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Douglas Morris, a member of the alternative energy industry team, shares his perspectives on author Daniel Yergin’s book on energy security and efficiency. Just about every day, in just about every media outlet, you will likely find some article...
- 4 Nov 2011
Power Blog: Low Carbon Economy and Technology Xinjiang Symposium

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Douglas Morris from the Alternative Energy team provides an update from a Low Carbon Economy and Technology in China: The 2nd annual Low Carbon Economy and Technology Xinjiang Symposium was held last week in Urumqi which is located in China...
- 21 Oct 2011
Power Blog: 2011 Gasification Technologies Council Conference

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Alan Novak, who leads the alternative energy industry team, shares his thoughts from a recent gasification conference: The Gasification Technologies Council (GTC) annual conference was held this week in San Francisco, California USA. Emerson...
- 14 Oct 2011
Power Blog: An Uncertain Future for the Renewable Fuels Standard 2 (RFS 2)

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Alan Novak, who leads the alternative energy industry team, shares his thoughts on the future of the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standard 2. When the Renewable Fuels Standard 2 was put in place as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of...
- 7 Oct 2011
Power Blog: Advanced Biofuels: Why Feedstock Neutrality Matters

Jim Cahill

Should we be picking the winning alternative energy feedstocks right now? Emerson’s Douglas Morris explores this question in today’s guest post. I’d like to start this blog post with a question: When you hear the term biofuels, what typically comes to...
- 30 Sep 2011
Power Blog: GTL, In Fact, Stands for Something Other than Gym-Tan-Laundry

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Douglas Morris, a member of the alternative energy team, shares his thoughts on the developments in natural gas to liquid conversion to help diversify U.S. sources of energy. Even though I’m from New Jersey, I’m not going to discuss the daily...
- 23 Sep 2011
Power Blog: The Changing Global Energy Mix

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Thomas Snowdon, a member of the Power & Water Solutions team, shares his thoughts on the changing global energy mix. A recent Power Magazine article, Global Gas Glut, made much of the prediction that shale gas production and its use is likely...
- 16 Sep 2011
Alternative Energy Blog: The Changing Global Energy Mix

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Thomas Snowdon, a member of the Power & Water Solutions team, shares his thoughts on the changing global energy mix. A recent Power Magazine article, Global Gas Glut, made much of the prediction that shale gas production and its use is likely...
- 16 Sep 2011
Power Blog: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage–Where Did All the Projects Go?

Jim Cahill

The push for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage projects has cooled according to Emerson’s Alan Novak, leader of the Alternative Energy team. Here are his thoughts: Carbon Dioxide is everywhere (0.0387% of the earth’s atmosphere by volume). Humans...
- 9 Sep 2011
Alternative Energy Blog: Cyber Security Critical Infrastructure Protection Compliance

Jim Cahill

Cyber security remains in the forefront of worries for most process manufacturers and electrical power producers. When I saw this news, NitroSecurity and Emerson Deliver Advanced Control System Security and Compliance Automation in my Twitter stream,...
- 13 Jun 2011
Alternative Energy Blog: Roadmapping Efficiency Improvements

Jim Cahill

Utilities Middle East magazine had a recent interview with Emerson’s Jeff Householder. Jeff is based in Dubai and leads the Systems and Solutions efforts for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. This Q&A article explores Jeff views on the outlook...
- 20 Jan 2010
Alternative Energy Blog: Reducing NOx through Combustion Optimization

Jim Cahill

If you’re in the coal-fired power generation business, you may know that Coal-Gen 2009 is going on this week. During the conference, a Midwest power producer and the Emerson Power & Water Solutions team gave a joint presentation on combustion optimization...
- 21 Aug 2009