Tuesday, August 4, 2009

On the Recent Marriage of Steam Turbine Technology to the Latest Generation of Liquid-Fuel Rocket Science



Native Sun Energy Corporation today announced the successful development of a patent-pending process to harness the power of stoichiometric hydrogen-oxygen combustion to drive modern, super-efficient steam turbine generator systems. Company spokesman Doug DeWitt states that Native Sun Energy represents the first commercial availability of 100% renewable electricity base-loads, generated entirely from raw renewable energy feed stocks. Rather than relying on fossil fuels, the traditional source for co-generation of variable-output renewable energies like wind and solar, Native Sun is using a patent-pending co-generation algorithm based on banking clean-burning hydrogen and oxygen.

The company, based out of Austin, Texas, is completing a prototype pilot project that will invest $1 Million in advanced automation R&D, allowing the integration of this technology with the mainstream power grid. The fast-start capabilities of the system are its greatest asset; steam supply to the turbine inlet can reach fully-operational temperature and pressure in under sixty-seconds.

"The key breakthrough in our R&D came from the guys at GE, in the development of super high-efficiency steam turbine technology," said DeWitt, company president. GE is also the leading producer of wind turbine technology in the US, second behind Vestas, the Danish manufacturer in world-wide sales. GE is also a market leader in transmission and distribution technologies here in the US.

Native Sun Energy is in discussion with regulated utilities in Texas and eastern New Mexico, offering the first fully-renewable base-load product at wholesale pricing to the power-distribution and retail electric utility industries. The company has also developed relationships with construction teams within the wind turbine industry, in anticipation of the upcoming development of 10,000MW of transmission capacity in the ERCOT corridor in west Texas and the Panhandle. The upgrade will connect five designated Competitive Renewable Energy Zones in the area to major markets in the state, and provide immense green-collar employment opportunities in the region.

Inherent in the design of the steam-driven co-generation system, there are no by-products of the process. There is no carbon footprint, nor does the system produce any greenhouse gases. The sole product of combustion is H2O, so there is no smokestack. The system is closed, returning all the water it uses to its internal holding tank. What little steam escapes into the environment, simply becomes clouds in the sky, and pure rainwater back to earth.

Because banked hydrogen and oxygen are generated using raw wind power, DC current directly from the turbines to commercial electrolysis units, burning the gases together to drive steam turbines is 100% renewable as well.

The company projects completion of the first project on-schedule, within the next 18-months. The facility is expected to have the capacity to co-generate as much as 500 MW of raw wind generation for a regional regulated utility in west Texas.

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