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Mayor Bloomberg of New York City just announced that they are going to use these Microturbines for apartment buildings(and maybe hybrid buses). They can run on natural gas, waste gas, biogas, as well as liquid fuels. They require no oil or lubrication to run.

Why can’t every city use these?

This will help cut greenhouse gases and cut back on our dependency on foreign oil.



Youtube clip on these turbines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmBNtoXFX5o

website
http://www.capstoneturbine.com/

e-mail your local and state government about these.

interesting... but I wonder what the efficiency rating of these small power generators are compared to big power plants. Most power generation plants are much more efficient when ran on a large scale, instead of small systems to power a single building.

good question..

but they take the waste heat generated and also can use it for heating and chillers for Air conditioner...so more power savings there too(and emission saving)

I think the key is that they are efficient when they "capture the heat from the exhaust stream." This sounds like a combined heat and power cogeneration technology. I don't know how small it scales.

Very true about using the waste heat... Lighting the building with outside light and CFL's would reduce the need for A/C during the summer as well as reduce the power consumption of the building.

I still think large scale plants are more efficient than small generators, on an emission and effective power production level.

It would be interesting to see how much a typical install costs.

I read a bunch of Capstone's papers. Very cool stuff. I want
one scaled to fit in my own basement...
.
_H*

Even if centralized is more efficient, I still think the future of power production will be more decentralized.

Even if centralized is more efficient, I still think the future of power production will be more decentralized.

I agree... but not with liquid fuel burning generators. Solar panels on the roof of all the homes in america would mean decentralizing power production for the most part.

The City is already an incredibly efficient consumer of energy. if everyone used as little energy as New Yorkers use, we'd all be better off.

BTW - by 2010 all NYC cabs will have to be hybrids (at least that's what the cabbie told me last week)

@blake

Maybe we can put some turbines on the roof too. :D

you know, I used to love wind power... and I still do. But I think its best left in the big scale. Small scale wind generators are not incredibly efficient nor do they last nearly as long as solar panels. The one thing they have on PV solar is that its MUCH cheaper to implement... but that will change within the next couple years when printable solar panels come out.

Personally I think you should use what's best situated for your location. Wind probably wouldn't work as great for me as it would for someone situated on the coast. Just like solar wouldn't work as great for someone in Maine as it would for me. Both situations would work... but obviously picking the more efficient one would be the best option. That being said, having redundancy or using both techs could quite possibly be the best option since you would always be generating power regardless of the weather conditions.

Yeah thats what I like redundancy.

Usually these micro generators or fuel cells are being used to prevent the cost of an upgrade to electrical lines. And there is a fair amount of loss in long distance transmission, especially after the first step down.

We will replace all those lines with tesla coils! Our cars will run with tesla coils, and little turbines on top to capture some of the wind turbulance and turn it back into electricity. Then we will plug them into the building when we get to work, to power our office for the day. Sweet!