Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Covanta Energy

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There were interesting presentations last night at city Hall in order for the city commission, staff and its advisers to eventually come to a conclusion as to whom will be our new energy provider beginning in January 2014.

There were a few that were outstanding but the most interesting presentation of the night, and the one that gave me a smile, was given by Covanta Energy. Its mission is to be the  world's leading Energy-from-Waste (EfW) company, with a complementary network of waste disposal and energy generation asset facilities that convert everyday trash into clean, renewable energy for communities around the world. All trash you discard is converted into energy--even those styrofoam cups you use for coffee. Covanta’s North American facilities supply electricity for  approximately 1 million homes and is headquartered in Doral, Florida.

The facility is the Miami-Dade County Resource recovery Facility and the seller is Miami-Dade County. On average, each ton of waste processed at Energy-from-Waste facilities yield approximately 550 kilowatt hours of electricity and approximately 50 pounds of recycled metal.

How Energy from Waste Works

1. Municipal waste is delivered to our facilities and stored in a bunker.
2. The waste is transferred to a combustion chamber where self-sustaining combustion is maintained at extremely high temperatures. We maintain the building around the tipping and bunker area under negative pressure and use this air in the combustion process to control odor.
3. The heat from the combustion process boils water.
4. & 5. The steam from the boiling water is used directly, or more frequently, the steam drives a turbine that generates electricity.
6. Electricity is distributed to the local grid.
7. Ash from combustion is processed to extract metal for recycling. It is then combined with residue from the air pollution control process (see items 9 and 10).
8. The combined ash is either disposed of in a monofill (where only ash is stored) that receives only that waste, used as cover material at a conventional landfill, or landfilled with other waste.
9. All gases are collected, filtered and cleaned before being emitted into the atmosphere. We manage gas from the combustion process with state-of-the-art air pollution control technology that operates to state and federal standards.
10. We control emissions of particulate matter primarily through a baghouse (fabric filter).
11. We monitor criteria and other pollutants and operating parameters to ensure compliance with permit conditions.

William Meredith, Business Manager Covanta Energy, said to give him a call if I wanted to take a tour of the facility. I would like to see our Commission take him up on that offer.

4 comments:

  1. FPL's proposal was the least likeable of all.

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  2. Lyn, Don't reveal who you liked the best as these crazies would go with just the opposite.

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  3. Just had the opportunity to read your blog. Green Power (Oregon) and a few other trash to power companies are coming on strong. This is a great way to make the city money, generate power and extract diesel for all of the city's vehicles......all from one plant.

    Solar relies upon subsidies and is not economical in Florida. Over here, where the power rates are $0.42 kwhr, then solar is economical.

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  4. I liked Covanta for what I perceive to be the stability of the cost. Miami will never run out of trash to convert and the price won't spike if Iran shuts down the straights of Hormus.

    We are spending a TON of money to get out of FMPA. There are several presenters who are members of that affiliation, basically all Municipally Owned Utilities, meaning they support their city's budget by selling power.

    So we would be buying wholesale power from one city supporting its budget to resell to ourselves so we can support our budget.

    The big problem is our reliance of that ability to charge whatever to "most" of our residents and businesses, by three votes on the commission. To fill whatever gap or wish or whim they have because of our "cash cow".

    "Let's tell them that we will 'borrow' $6million from our cow fund to give the casino a facelift, then when done, go get a loan...." news flash... o k so we now won't go get a loan because we just used our "cash cow" to pay for the little facelift and our rate payers won't miss the funds. All the revenue will come back into the general fund so we, the commission, can decide how to pay back that money to the rate payers. ..... HUH?

    We need to look long range and get out of the electricity business so our rates can come down. Stay away from FMPA.

    Anyone happen to notice the rats jumping from the sinking ship? And where did they swim?

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