But in the latest Energy Cast podcast, host Jay Dauenhauer says we we’re asking too much of lithium. He asks: Shouldn’t something so energy dense be reserved for the roads? And what about stationary storage? Does that really matter?

This podcast comes from the December 2021 PowerGen+ series panel: “Breaking Through the Electron Ceiling: Alternatives to Lithium-Ion in Stationary Storage” and focuses on alternatives for stationary battery storage.

Panelists include:

Dan Lambert—Senior Product Manager—ZincFive

Ed Porter—Business Development Director—Invinity Energy Systems

Gautam Yadav—Director of Advanced Battery Development—Urban Electric Power

Click here to listen to the podcast:

_____________________________________________________

Dauenhauer was previously executive director of the Clean Coal Technology Association in Texas. He also has worked as project director in power generation and transmission as well as a media analyst for TXU Energy prior to the $45 billion leveraged buyout of that company in 2007. A Louisiana native and proud graduate of Louisiana State University, his career began as a TV news producer before transitioning into the energy sector. Back behind the mic, Dauenhauer hopes to bring his experience working across several energy sectors to you in a program designed to be accessible to both the public and industry insiders. Dauenhauer also is a member of the POWERGEN International and DISTRIBUTECH International advisory committees. Clarion Energy is the parent company of Power Engineering, POWERGEN, DISTRIBUTECH.

_____________________________________________________

Energy Cast is a regular podcast featuring some of the top experts across all links in the industry chain. Those include coal, nuclear, efficiency, renewables, oil and gas, as well as top government researchers. Longtime project manager Jay Dauenhauer created it and has been hosting Energy Cast for several years. Learn more about the podcast here.

In some skeptics’ eyes quite a few years ago, the fear of cyber attacks on the nation’s grid and power plants was remote and really considered more alarmism through a true fire danger.

Hardly anyone rational would think that now. The Russian hack on the Ukraine power plant in 2015 got the world’s attention. Every year, utilities are increasing their capital spend on protecting their assets from bad actors.

Energy Cast podcast host Jay Dauenhauer recently chatted with Michael Toecker, senior engineering consultant for the RADICS program at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Listen to more Energy Cast podcasts here.

“The RADICS scenario imagines a pretty long period where there is no electric power, and as part of that, are we going to have Internet access?” he asks.  “If we presuppose all of these things, we basically need to take everyone back to the Stone Age and build it back up again.”

To simulate an attack like this, the DARPA team have taken over part of New York’s Plum Island.  The island itself is a bit of a mystery to the public, in large part to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which tests live viruses.  In 2008, an unidentifiable animal washed ashore across from Plum Island, and was quickly christened the Montauk Monster.

Click here to see Jay’s podcast with Michael Toecker of DARPA:

Dauenhauer himself was previously executive director of the Clean Coal Technology Association in Texas. He also has worked as project director in power generation and transmission as well as a media analyst for TXU Energy prior to the $45 billion leveraged buyout of that company in 2007. A Louisiana native and proud graduate of Louisiana State University, his career began as a TV news producer before transitioning into the energy sector. Back behind the mic, Dauenhauer hopes to bring his experience working across several energy sectors to you in a program designed to be accessible to both the public and industry insiders. Dauenhauer also is a member of the POWERGEN International and DISTRIBUTECH International advisory committees. Clarion Energy is the parent company of Power Engineering, POWERGEN, DISTRIBUTECH.

Energy Cast Podcast is hosted biweekly by Jay Dauenhauer. Learn more about the podcast here.

Click here to see the episode:

When you include transportation fuels, fossil fuels make up approximately 80% of U.S energy usage.  However, to hear many people tell it, days are numbered for coal, oil, and natural gas.

That may not be entirely accurate, and according to the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, these fossil fuels could play an important role in a near-zero carbon future.

Steven Winberg, my guest and Asst. Secretary for Fossil Energy, got his start as an engineer working on coal-fired boilers.  He says coal’s future, especially in the U.S., will focus on three categories:

1. Coal FIRST (Flexible, Innovative, Resilient, Small, Transformative)–An initiative to make coal-fired units smaller and more flexible.  In the future, coal fired units may be backing up more renewables as wind and solar play a larger role in the mix.
2. Coal for products–Using coal for its “carbon value” rather than it’s heating value.  Products could include graphene, 3D printing materials, and alternatives to lumber.
3. Hydrogen production–H₂ produced from coal or natural gas (“blue hydrogen”) is more cost-effective than the renewable variety (“green hydrogen”).  Combined with carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), this blue H₂ could be carbon neutral.

Steve believes the United States can help lower global emission through technologies like Coal FIRST, as well as high-grade coal from the western united states.

“The reality is this,” he says, “With the high-quality coal that the U.S. has, if we export that coal, we will be displacing lower-quality coal from other countries.  The net benefit is there will be lower CO₂ emissions.”

I also asked him about the role the Department is playing with CCUS, and how might the U.S. speed up its adoption.  Steve says carbon capture is 75% of CCUS’ cost.  They are trying to cut those costs in half, to about $30/ton capture cost.

“When I got to this job,” he says, “One of the first things that I asked us to get moving on was reducing the cost of carbon capture.”

Listen to more Energy Cast podcasts here.

In fact, Steve believes that enhanced oil recovery, reduced capture costs, and recent 45Q tax incentives can make CCUS attractive without a punitive tax on carbon emissions.  “That starts to make economic sense,” he says.

In addition to carbon capture from coal, the Office of Fossil Energy is nearly equally focused on natural gas CO₂ capture.  They are also exploring capture from industrial gases and direct-air capture (DAC).

DAC could be especially effective for enhanced oil recovery in remote areas like oilfields.  “We can install those DAC facilities right on top of the oilfield and then we don’t have to build pipelines,” says Steve.

I also asked Sec. Winberg about recent fluctuations in oil prices, especially following the COVID-19 outbreak.  He blames an “almost unprecedented demand destruction,” yet adds oil markets have been resilient despite this disruption.

“I think we’re seeing volatility in oil–mostly low prices–because there are a lot of producers out there.  That is one of the beautiful things about the unconventional oil and gas plays.”  He adds that the shale revolution has led to many smaller producers entering the market.

Much like we discussed in my episode with the American Petroleum Institute, Steve also pointed to the benefits of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).  Steve says Congress declined to authorize fuel purchases in March 2020.  However, the SPR agreed to store oil from small producers in April, less a small percentage of oil to remain as a “rent or lease payment.”

“I don’t think there’s much else that the U.S. government does that would give a return to the taxpayers like that,” says Steve.

What about an eventual Strategic Petroleum Reserve for Hydrogen?  Steve says while he believes hydrogen production will be more distributed than oil & gas production, he says, “Maybe it would be more distributed.  Wouldn’t just be two facilities in Louisiana, and two in Texas [like the SPR].”

As someone who once worked on an integrated Natural Gas Vehicle program, he believes hydrogen could see an easier path to adoption.

“With hydrogen, if the driver is significant CO₂ emissions reductions, I could see hydrogen moving forward,” he says, “Maybe with an easier path than NGVs or even electric vehicles.” (This podcast originally aired in August 2020.)

Dauenhauer himself was previously executive director of the Clean Coal Technology Association in Texas. He also has worked as project director in power generation and transmission as well as a media analyst for TXU Energy prior to the $45 billion leveraged buyout of that company in 2007. A Louisiana native and proud graduate of Louisiana State University, his career began as a TV news producer before transitioning into the energy sector. Back behind the mic, Dauenhauer hopes to bring his experience working across several energy sectors to you in a program designed to be accessible to both the public and industry insiders. Dauenhauer also is a member of the POWERGEN International and DISTRIBUTECH International advisory committees. Clarion Energy is the parent company of Power Engineering, POWERGEN, DISTRIBUTECH.

Energy Cast Podcast is hosted biweekly by Jay Dauenhauer. Learn more about the podcast here.

Click here to see the episode:

I have been wanting to cover a story on “The War of the Currents” for a while now.  About a year ago, I read Graham Moore’s The Last Days of Night, a historical fiction, so I had some background on this important episode in world history.

The Current War, a new film based on an original screenplay by my guest, Michael Mitnick, covers that 13-year period, from 1880-1893.  Michael began writing the script as a play while in grad school at Yale (his first play featured then-student and future Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o).

After it was completed as a screenplay in 2011, it was selected for the Hollywood “Black List” of the best still-unproduced screenplays.  A year later it was optioned as a feature.  Cameras rolled in 2016 and the film was set for release November 2017, produced by The Weinstein Company–as in Harvey Weinstein.

Mitnick says a close friend called him three-days before the infamous New Yorker story broke.  “At that moment on the phone I knew, ‘Oh, the movie’s done,” he says.

The story broke a month before the film’s release.  “While we were editing, we’d get the sense that something unusually bad was happening at The Weinstein Company, though we didn’t know what it was,” says Michael.  “Notes started to come in that had no relation to reality. Why is someone obsessing over a minor word in a sentence that has no significance either way?”

He described the episode as “devastating,” adding, “I began to wonder if can even come out because people will associate it with [Weinstein], even though he had nothing to do with it, other than initially raising money.”

In 2019, Martin Scorsese, the film’s executive producer, rescued the film, exercising final cut.  This allowed the filmmakers to re-shoot and edit the picture (hence the reason it’s called “The Director’s Cut” on posters).  Michael called Scorsese’s role getting the film released “unbelievable.”

The movie itself covers two American titans, Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon).  Tom Holland stars as Edison’s assistant Samuel Insull and Nicholas Hoult plays Nikola Tesla.

The two currents at the center of this “war” are alternating and direct current.  Edison, coming off the invention of the light bulb, was a strong DC supporter.  It was low voltage and required power stations close to the customers, which of course Edison provided.

Enter alternating current. This was championed by Westinghouse.  By transmitting over longer distances at higher voltages, you could then step-down (transformers) AC voltage closer to the sources that used it.  The format was clearly superior, so Edison’s only hope was to allege that AC was deadly.  There’s a subplot in the movie involving the first electric chair.

At first, all electricity was used for lighting, but customers were eager to use it to power heavy machinery and appliances.  Nikola Tesla’s invention of the poly-phase AC induction motor finally solved that challenge, and the rest is history.

Michael says he spent time on set.  He gave Cumberbatch a signed photo of Edison as a present for agreeing to do the film.  Mitnick described Cumberbatch as a “sweetheart,” but of Edison, “[He] was known for a lot of things, but he was not known for being a nice guy.”

Michael, who grew up in Pittsburgh, recalls his professor/historian father describing Westinghouse, on the other hand, “as a good guy…different from other tycoons of his era.”

When the conversation turned to Tesla, Michael agreed that it was difficult reducing the character’s role to be appropriate for the story they were telling.

“[Tesla has] emerged over the last 15 years as a folk hero, and as a representation of someone who, especially as an immigrant, is perceived to have been treated worse than anyone.  And that if he had been given his fair shake, and if capitalism didn’t have its way, he would have been one of our explicit heroes, and our technology would be far more advanced than it is.”

It wasn’t lost on Michael that his small, “prestige” picture stars nearly every superhero character on screen today.  “Well, maybe this can have a life in China because we can show all the Marvel people,” he jokes.

Listen to more Energy Cast podcasts here.

Much like this podcast, I was curious how challenging it was to represent some highly technical concepts to the movie-going audience.  “The film is PG-13,” he says, “I have to make sure that a 13-year-old kid, who’s never had physics, to an older person, understands it.”

To that end, Michael says he wrote as many as 30 drafts to help explain the technology, rather than expository dialog.  One example is the map of the U.S. where lightbulbs represent cities using Edison’s DC (white) or Westinghouse’s AC (red) system.  Michael says he got the idea for this plot device after watching the stage musical 1776, which depicted delegates’ votes on a board.

Another challenge with audiences was the effort to capture the magic felt by characters seeing electric light for the first time.  He admits his drama professors questioned that challenge.

“For me it was the hope that in those scenes where we are lighting up towns, it could somehow feel like if you broke the news to everyone that time travel is possible.” (This podcast originally aired in October 2020.)

Dauenhauer himself was previously executive director of the Clean Coal Technology Association in Texas. He also has worked as project director in power generation and transmission as well as a media analyst for TXU Energy prior to the $45 billion leveraged buyout of that company in 2007. A Louisiana native and proud graduate of Louisiana State University, his career began as a TV news producer before transitioning into the energy sector. Back behind the mic, Dauenhauer hopes to bring his experience working across several energy sectors to you in a program designed to be accessible to both the public and industry insiders. Dauenhauer also is a member of the POWERGEN International and DISTRIBUTECH International advisory committees. Clarion Energy is the parent company of Power Engineering, POWERGEN, DISTRIBUTECH.

Energy Cast Podcast is hosted biweekly by Jay Dauenhauer. Learn more about the podcast here.

Click here to see the episode:

The future of carbon capture technologies is an international issue.

The National Carbon Capture Center in Wilsonville, Alabama, is primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, with contributions from host operator Southern Co. and testing partners. But the NCCC, while concerned with keeping American coal-fired generation environmentally and economically viable, is open to others in the world who want to sustain thermal generation.

“We’re very active from the standpoint of international technology developers,” John Northington, director of the NCCC, told Energy Cast podcast host Jay Dauenhauer in the latest episode of the series. “At this point and time we’ve already worked with about 30 government, university and research organizations spanning across seven other countries. We expect that to grow over time.”

Read more about carbon capture in Power Engineering

Coal-fired power in the U.S. has fallen from more than 40 percent of the generation capacity mix to near 20 percent in the recent years. More than 500 coal-fired plants have been retired or due for retirement due to regulatory, operational and competitive generation costs.

This trend is much the same in the rest of developed world. In other developing markets such as Asia, however, coal-fired power plants are still being planned and built.

So the race to capture flue gas, utilize it cleanly or sequester it underground is on. The NCCC is situated next to a coal-fired power plant in Alabama and also has expanded its research aim to include gas-fired emissions. (This podcast originally aired in August 2020.)

Listen to the Energy Cast podcast here

Dauenhauer himself was previously executive director of the Clean Coal Technology Association in Texas. He also has worked as project director in power generation and transmission as well as a media analyst for TXU Energy prior to the $45 billion leveraged buyout of that company in 2007. A Louisiana native and proud graduate of Louisiana State University, his career began as a TV news producer before transitioning into the energy sector. Back behind the mic, Dauenhauer hopes to bring his experience working across several energy sectors to you in a program designed to be accessible to both the public and industry insiders. Dauenhauer also is a member of the POWERGEN International and DISTRIBUTECH International advisory committees. Clarion Energy is the parent company of Power Engineering, POWERGEN, DISTRIBUTECH.

Energy Cast Podcast is hosted biweekly by Jay Dauenhauer. Learn more about the podcast here.

Click here to see the episode:

I am a huge coal supporter.  It’s critical to our energy needs and I think it’s one of the reasons this podcast stands apart.

When I was Executive Director of the Clean Coal Technology Foundation of Texas ten years ago, most of our members were concerned with post-combustion, taking care of pollutants after coal had been burned.

However, we had one member that had an interesting coal-refining technology.  It’s stuck with me ever since, and I wanted to see if there were any companies out there still trying to make a difference on the other side of the boiler.

Clean Coal Technologies, Inc. is a New York-based company with a suite of refining technologies.  Their “Pristine” line of technologies consists of the following:

• Pristine–A coal-drying technology
• Pristine M–Uses a “Vapor Phase Deposition” process to re-introduce volatiles back into the coal to keep the moisture out and the coal intact (not friable or porous)
• Pristine SA (“Synthetic Anthracite”)–A next-generation technology the company is exploring to completely remove volatiles from the coal and essentially reduce it to pure carbon

Robin Eves, President and CEO of CCTI, came to the company ten years ago after a stint in the oil sector. “My first thought was, look, you don’t burn raw crude oil, so why are we burning raw coal?”

While the Pristine SA product could theoretically remove all pollutants and eliminate the need for scrubbers, Robin says international clients in particular are focused on economics and availability at the moment.

The existing process actually re-introduces the original volatiles or “bad stuff” found in coal, but Robin says “you’ve got a better and more efficient product and putting less bad stuff into the atmosphere.”

Despite what America does with its coal fleet, Robin says the future is overseas for America’s coal supplies.  He cites 300M Indians and 500M sub-Saharan Africans without coal, in addition to 800M East Asians who use about 1/7 the energy Europeans use.

Back when I was working for the coal groups, I once addressed the Austin City Council about the need to keep using coal in an effort to proliferate cleaner coal usage abroad.

From my 2010 address:

“Developing countries are building new coal facilities faster than we could ever mothball our own fleets. And the less we invest in new, innovative scrubber technologies for this vast, abundant resource, the dirtier those plants in developing countries will be.”

I’m glad to see companies like CCTI are making the world cleaner by using this important resource more responsibly. (This podcast originally aired in May 2019.)

See more of the Energy Cast podcasts

Goldmeer also has been a session chair and presenter at POWERGEN International.

Dauenhauer himself was previously executive director of the Clean Coal Technology Association in Texas. He also has worked as project director in power generation and transmission as well as a media analyst for TXU Energy prior to the $45 billion leveraged buyout of that company in 2007. A Louisiana native and proud graduate of Louisiana State University, his career began as a TV news producer before transitioning into the energy sector. Back behind the mic, Dauenhauer hopes to bring his experience working across several energy sectors to you in a program designed to be accessible to both the public and industry insiders. Dauenhauer also is a member of the POWERGEN International and DISTRIBUTECH International advisory committees. Clarion Energy is the parent company of Power Engineering, POWERGEN, DISTRIBUTECH.

Energy Cast Podcast is hosted biweekly by Jay Dauenhauer. Learn more about the podcast here.

Click here to see the episode:

Natural gas only recently became the No. 1 resource for electricity power generation in the U.S., but it’s been the most versatile for a long time.

In his Energy Cast podcast, Dauenhauer spoke with Jeffrey Goldmeer, director of gas turbines, combustion and fuel solutions for OEM giant GE. They talked about the flexibility of combustion turbines, which are not limited to natural gas but can burn waste gas, diesel, fuel oil and, in a growing movement, hydrogen.

“Gas turbines can run a whole lot of fuels,” Goldmeer said. “If it’s a hydrocarbon, we can burn it.”

Hydrogen does not contain carbon, so many companies are moving toward integrating H2 into the power generation resource. That research will take years, maybe decades, to bring to scale.

Even so, Goldmeer pointed out, gas turbines offer the opportunity to dramatically decarbonize the thermal and combustion power sectors.

Those turbines also can provide baseload and peaking power.

See more of the Energy Cast podcasts

Goldmeer also has been a session chair and presenter at POWERGEN International.

Dauenhauer himself was previously executive director of the Clean Coal Technology Association in Texas. He also has worked as project director in power generation and transmission as well as a media analyst for TXU Energy prior to the $45 billion leveraged buyout of that company in 2007. A Louisiana native and proud graduate of Louisiana State University, his career began as a TV news producer before transitioning into the energy sector. Back behind the mic, Dauenhauer hopes to bring his experience working across several energy sectors to you in a program designed to be accessible to both the public and industry insiders. Dauenhauer also is a member of the POWERGEN International and DISTRIBUTECH International advisory committees. Clarion Energy is the parent company of Power Engineering, POWERGEN, DISTRIBUTECH.

Energy Cast Podcast is hosted biweekly by Jay Dauenhauer. Learn more about the podcast here.

Click here to see the episode:

Utility-scale renewable project development is not a game for short-timers

The goal of clean energy may be admirable, but the road there is a long, hard one full of regulatory hurdles, changing economic rationales and land use challenges. It requires patience and commitment exponentially.

“Anytime you want to go in and be a good and responsible developer, you would have done your homework,” Beth Conley, vice president of communications for U.S-based independent project developer Invenergy, told Jay Dauenhauer in a recent Energy Cast podcast.

Chicago-based Invenergy started as a gas-fired project developer and has moved increasingly into renewables. It has produced more than 160 projects, lately focusing on solar and storage, but also has done utility-scale wind including joint ventures bringing more utilities into the ownership picture.

Dauenhauer himself was previously executive director of the Clean Coal Technology Association in Texas. He also has worked as project director in power generation and transmission as well as a media analyst for TXU Energy prior to the $45 billion leveraged buyout of that company in 2007. A Louisiana native and proud graduate of Louisiana State University, his career began as a TV news producer before transitioning into the energy sector. Back behind the mic, Dauenhauer hopes to bring his experience working across several energy sectors to you in a program designed to be accessible to both the public and industry insiders. Dauenhauer also is a member of the POWERGEN International and DISTRIBUTECH International advisory committees. Clarion Energy is the parent company of Power Engineering, POWERGEN, DISTRIBUTECH.

Energy Cast Podcast is hosted biweekly by Jay Dauenhauer. Learn more about the podcast here.

Click here to see the episode:

Regardless of how many developed nations walk away from coal-fired power, many developing nations will incorporate into their electricity mix. Why not ensure that coal is of a high quality to reduce emissions compared to lesser coal?

The future of coal was front and center in Energy Cast podcast host Jay Dauenhauer’s recent conversation with Steven Winberg, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy. Winberg touted coal’s versatility, from use in roofing products to using it in creating hydrogen.

He also sees a role of more adaptive future coal plants with smaller footprints. Those would operate almost like a gas peaker plants; unless, of course, gas eventually rises in prices and coal may return to baseload services.

“U.S. has some of the highest quality coal in the world. If we had a west coal terminal we could be exporting it into the Asian market which gets very hungry for high quality coal,” Winberg said. “If we exported that coal, we would be displacing lower quality coal sourced from other countries, and the net benefit is that there would be lower CO2 emissions. Those people are going to burn coal anyway, so why not burn the highest quality coal they can get?”

Click below to listen to the full episode:

Finland’s Wärtsilä has been a key player in the on-site power space for decades. The company has adapted to many changes in the grid mix and standby power needs over the years, and what it’s seeing lately is a place where diesel and gas-fired engines meet renewables, energy storage and the microgrid equation.

Click here to see and hear more Energy Cast podcasts and stories.

Wärtsilä’s reciporating engines are being deployed in places where renewable capacity is growing, such as wind-heavy Oklahoma and west Texas. In this Energy Cast podcast, host Jay Dauenhauer talks with Risto Paldanius, Wärtsilä director of business development for energy storage and optimization.

During the interview, Paldanius talks about his company’s acquisition of Greensmith Energy as well as the lessons learned that led to the embrace of fast-starting combustion engines to balance the intermittent clean energy on the grid.

“ We saw renewables coming (and) realized that is very beneficial for our engine business,” he said, “because the engines are very flexible–sopping, starting and highly efficient.”

Dauenhauer and Paldanius spoke during a break at last year’s POWERGEN International event. This year’s POWERGEN has been rescheduled for March 30-April 1 in Orlando.

Dauenhauer himself was previously executive director of the Clean Coal Technology Association in Texas. He also has worked as project director in power generation and transmission as well as a media analyst for TXU Energy prior to the $45 billion leveraged buyout of that company in 2007.

A Louisiana native and proud graduate of Louisiana State University, his career began as a TV news producer before transitioning into the energy sector. Back behind the mic, Dauenhauer hopes to bring his experience working across several energy sectors to you in a program designed to be accessible to both the public and industry insiders.

Dauenhauer also is a member of the POWERGEN International and DISTRIBUTECH International advisory committees. Clarion Energy is the parent company of Power Engineering, POWERGEN, DISTRIBUTECH.