Geothermal Industry

Often called a geo system refers to heat pumps use heat from the earth to provide hot water and warm or cold air transferred from one area to another. What is the process to fabricate heat pumps?

Pay Attention to “Technology Wedges” According to Green Manufacturing Expert

Pay Attention to “Technology Wedges” According to Green Manufacturing Expert

Dr. David Dornfeld, a past interview guest on this blog, has shared his thoughts and recommendations regarding manufacturing emissions and "technology wedges". »

David Calls Out Goliath and its Protectionist Policies

David Calls Out Goliath and its Protectionist Policies

Gotta five it to the tiny (second smallest) nation of Tuvalu (12,000 citizens) for calling out China on their emissions and shining light on their unethical, even illegal, means of dominating the green manufacturing era.

The End of "Developing Countries"

Today, the notion that there are just two types of countries – developed and developing – is falling apart. As large "developing" nations like China rapidly increase their emissions and grow their economies, we are seeing the old UNFCCC assumptions about who should bear the responsibility of mitigating climate change crumble and the concept of "developing countries" come to an end.

 

By Yael Borofsky, Ted Nordhaus, and Michael Shellenberger

In 1992, at the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the nations of the world agreed that only developed "Annex I" countries — the U.S., Europe, Japan, etc — would have to reduce their emissions. Developing countries were too poor and weren't polluting enough to cause much warming anyway.

But fast forward to 2009 and the very idea of "developing countries" is falling apart.

Last week the tiny island nation of Tuvalu halted United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen after it demanded that China and other big developing nations also agree to emissions limits. Tuvalu pointed out that there is no possibility of keeping atmospheric carbon emissions below 450 parts per million, much less the more radical demand of 350 ppm, if Chinese emissions continue to rise at business-as-usual levels.

While most of the media coverage focused on the threat to island nations from climate change, and their radical demand of 350 ppm rather than the U.N. IPCC call for keeping concentrations at 450 ppm, the most significant aspect of the episode is that it marks the end of the idea that there is such a thing as the "developing world."

TuvaluA Tale of Two Nations: Tuvalu's GDP is $15 million. China's GDP is $7.9 trillion. Why do we keep calling them both developing countries?

Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world with 12,000 people — China is the largest with 1.3 billion. Tuvalu's GDP is $15 million (yes, million). China's is $7.9 trillion.

And China, as everyone now knows, is the world's largest emitter.

US delegation head Todd Stern has repeatedly said that the Kyoto framework is dead – the U.S. will not agree to binding limits if China, the world's largest polluter, does not also agree to limits. But the Tuvalu proposal signals that the developing world is no longer even ostensibly unified.

And yet China continues to demand that it be treated the same as tiny countries like Tuvalu. Under the UNFCCC framework China would not only not have to reduce its emissions, it would be eligible to receive investment aid and technology transfer from the developed world. The U.S., according to the UNFCCC, would be required to fund technology transfer to China.

It makes no sense anymore to assume that the flow of clean energy "technology transfer" will be from developed nations like the United States to developing countries like China. China is the world leader in low-carbon energy technologies. According to our recent report, "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant," China will grow that lead by investing more than twice as much as the U.S. in technology and infrastructure. China is a leader in the domestic manufacturing capacity of solar, wind, and batteries for advanced vehicles and is actively nurturing the development of clean energy innovation clusters.

TechTransferRising Tiger: The UNFCC says developed nations like the United States should transfer technology to China, but China is already a leader in the global production of many clean energy technologies.

In fact, China now produces more solar PV, twice the amount of wind turbine components, more batteries for advanced vehicles, and more nuclear reactor components than the United States. In terms of solar PV manufacturing capacity alone, China has 1,800 MW while the U.S., in comparison, has just 375 MW.

Under the UNFCC framework, the U.S. would be required to underwrite China's clean technology industry — even while it is already importing Chinese clean energy technologies, such as wind turbines for a new farm in Texas, which provoked a protest from U.S. Senator Schumer last month.

What we are seeing is more than an end to an outmoded category — "developing countries" — and more than the death of the Kyoto protocol. We are watching a set of the fundamental assumptions that underpin the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change collapse under their own weight

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Michigan Green Manufacturers Awarded Federal Stimulus

Five small manufacturing companies won $15.5 million in federal stimulus awards to help them move into making green energy systems and parts, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced today. The firms will diversify from making tanks, auto parts and boats to manufacturing solar shingles, wind turbines and windmills. The governor's office reported the grants will create or... »

Upcoming Trade Show Offers Tooling Companies Guidance Into Energy

The first-ever mega trade show between Fabtech, AWS, and Metalform is about one month away at the McCormick Center in Chicago. Here’s a release from David Greenfield touting the show’s opportunities for domestic manufacturers to break into the alternative energy market–something many of you are trying to do.

FabTech 2009 focuses on alternative energy potential for manufacturers

Opportunities for metalforming, fabricating, and welding manufacturers to be highlighted at Chicago event.

David Greenfield — Control Engineering, 10/13/2009

With the wind energy market setting aggressive goals to supply 20% of U.S. energy by 2030, coupled with record-setting growth levels by the U.S. solar energy industry in 2008, the opportunities for metalforming, fabricating, and welding manufacturers are expanding. But many are not fully aware of the new business potential these emerging sectors offer to more established manufacturing industries.

To address this knowledge gap, organizers of the upcoming FabTech International & AWS Welding Show (Chicago, November 15-18, 2009), will offer free sessions for manufacturers on growth opportunities in the energy sector.

Relavent sessions include:

  • A keynote panel presentation titled "Energy: The Outlook is Bright, But Where Will It Lead Us," will connect experts from both the wind and solar energy sectors to discuss trends and forecasts, government issues, and what it all means to current and future suppliers in the fabricating industry.
  • A presentation on the wind energy market, featured at the event’s Solutions Showcase Theater, will discuss opportunities for investment and growth in the sector, including utility-scale and small wind turbine component manufacturing, tower fabrications, installation, and grid tie-in.
  • Another Solutions Showcase Theater presentation will highlight opportunities for metalforming, fabricating and welding in the solar energy industry supply chain and will focus on how solar energy is converted, stored, and distributed within a home and along the smart grid.

"In the past four years, the share of wind power parts manufactured in the U.S. has grown from 30% to 50%, and a single wind turbine includes more than 8,000 precision parts," said Brad Lystra, manager of economic development partnerships for the American Wind Energy Association. "In addition to creating new jobs, the wind industry is positioned to replace some of the manufacturing jobs that have been lost in other sectors during the economic downturn."

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From Trucks to Turbines; U.S. Tooling Companies Seek Diversity

 

“Who’s moving along with the winds of change?”
By: Joe Brown
ROYAL  OAK,MI – I can say with absolute certainty that many of you reading this are now exploring the possibilities of transitioning your company from historically-dependent automotive markets, to newer, diversified markets such as alternative energy.
But since this “green” movement is fledgling in its presence in North America there aren’t many tool, die and mold shops that have gone before us and set a true precedent. A tried and true blueprint of “best practices”. No specific steps, methods or guiding regulations clearly define the best point of entry for auto suppliers to manufacture wind, solar, hydropower and geothermal systems components.
The loss of domestic manufacturing jobs have been well-documented and perhaps some companies that were 100% reliant on the carmakers could be accused of myopic management. However, I feel very strongly that not only will the North American manufacturing sector bounce back but the Detroit Three will as well. However, as with any other strategy dealing with supply, demand, profits, losses and most important of all—risk—the number one rule will always be diversification.
Those companies who stay close with automotive and diversify into new markets like energy, medical, aerospace or military will be the strongest. And within energy circles, no other type of renewable power stands to grow as much as wind.
Despite the lack of a map to follow, what does the TD&A recommend to a company trying to enter new markets such as supplying to wind energy manufacturers?
Whether a company builds or offers large transfer or smaller progressive stamping dies, injection mold machines, 5-axis machining or advanced welding operations—it’s about knowing the current energy components being made and matching their manufacturing processes to their own capabilities.
Similarities & Differences of Manufacturing Philosophies
Although volumes are increasing, some notable differences between automotive and energy manufacturing philosophies are:
  • Green components tend to be rather complex and in smaller volumes while auto parts are high volume and mass produced.
  •  Suppliers to car OEMs are familiar with fabricating many types of metals such as steel, HSS, or aluminum. Wind turbine manufacturers currently machine a couple steels too, such as aluminum but they focus more on composites such as fiberglass.
  •  Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers currently look for any excess that can be cut while energy suppliers are faced with the most efficient steps to expand.
  • Geographic locations rather than union presence will play more of a factor of large wind and solar OEMs decision to relocate.
Geographic Location—not lack of union presence—provides Regional Advantages
General Electric recently stated that Michigan, Ohio, California and Texas are likely to be the largest “growth” states for wind turbine farms and production.
It should be noted that it’s not as easy to retool a stamping press that normally cycles out car hoods into one that is able to produce turbine blades.
One thing auto suppliers do have going for them is the experience of adhering to demanding tolerances from auto OEMs.
With more efficient technologies in place, constant pressure for innovations and better technology the automotive industry is primed to make the leap into other markets after learning the requirements. Since most of you have been tooled up for high volume, for instance the large batch sizes car programs require for parts has made it logical to use metal stampings for cost efficiencies sake.
It will take different business process, operation and financial models. As mentioned above, perhaps dies were built for production life cycles of 4 million hits and now you only need tools for 40,000 parts. Perhaps there’s some cost savings and efficiencies in scale by building tooling that doesn’t necessarily need to withstand the heavy rigors of continuous pounding millions of cycles.
Geographic locations can provide competitive advantages for certain parts of the country where wind speeds are fast and consistent enough. Fortunately, some of the aforementioned states such as coastal states as California, the windy plains of Texas and especially the struggling economies of the rustbelt states around the Great Lakes.

The rest of this article can be obtained here….

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