The distributed power movement got a boost from American GasAssociation (AGA) Chairman David Biegler this week from remarksmade at the 17th Congress of the World Energy Council (WEC) inHouston. “Distributed power is attractive to consumers, especiallyin facilities like manufacturing plants, laundries and hospitalsthat need both electric power and thermal energy,” said Biegler,CEO of Texas Utilities. “It can cut costs, provide waste heat foron-site use and improve power quality and reliability.” Hepredicted distributed power could provide as much as 50 gigawattsof power by 2015, compared to less than 2 GW today.

“Fuel cells, which can be powered by a variety of fuels,including hydrogen, methanol, ethanol, natural gas and liquefiedpetroleum gas, are close to being commercially viable for use insupplying electricity for such facilities as office complexes,hospitals, hotels and military installations.”

In touting alternative technologies, Biegler picked up on atheme running through the WEC’s meeting, which is held once everythree years. Many speakers emphasized the role of technology bothin meeting future energy demand and in remedying harmful effects onthe environment.

“There is no reason why we cannot develop and deploytechnologies that virtually eliminate the cause of acid rain andthe release of smog-forming pollutants,” U.S. Secretary of EnergyBill Richardson said during his address to the congress. “Manynations represented here today have first-of-a-kind coalgasification and advanced combustion plants that remove 95% or moreof these pollutants before they escape into the atmosphere – allwhile raising power generation efficiencies above 50%. The task isnow to make these technologies more commercially viable.”

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