Alternatives for Automation

As the alternative energy sector accelerates, automation suppliers are anxious to get a piece of the action.

Green energy is no longer just a fad to hog the marketplace with. What began as a necessary good in some parts of the world years ago has now evolved into something which can do the whole world a world of good. The EU, for one, has ambitious targets for the year 2020 – all national energy baskets will have to be at least “20 percent green”. And the developing economies of Asia will do well to harness as much as possible of the wind, solar and biomass-based energyavailable to them, in the years to come.

Indeed, already, renewable energy holds considerable importance for Asian economies. In a worldwide rankings list for six renewable energy categories – Solar Heating, Solar Photovoltaic (PV), Geothermal, Biomass, Wind, Small Hydropower – Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Israel and India all feature in the top five in at least one category, with China even coming out tops in two (Solar Heating and Small Hydropower).

Among the many beneficiaries of this development have been, are, and will be, the automation solutions providers, who play a key role in enabling wind turbines, solar PV modules, etc, to function efficiently and safely, lighting up houses and offices, heating up homes, and …. cooling the planet.

The data lends weight to the talk of the Renewable Energy Decade: in the two years from 2005 to 2007, renewable power capacity increased by 15 percent, courtesy a 78 percent jump in investments during the same period. Solar PV electricity production and biodiesel use (in transportation and power generation) more than doubled, and solar heating rose by 45 percent – thanks mainly to numerous installations for solar water heating coming up in China.

The ambitious plans carved out by Asian countries as regards “greening” their energy mixes is set to trigger demand for a wide variety of materials, components and products, such as silicon, photovoltaic cells, wind turbine components, troughs and associated circuitry for concentrated solar power, biofuels and the necessary processing equipment, water turbines, etc.

Analysis of the entire value chain reveals that there are several design, manufacturing and production operations involved, including the control and monitoring associated with the use-phase. Needless to say, this would trigger investments in several sectors which could be second-tier or third-tier suppliers (or even further lower down as well in the value chain) to the renewable energy sector.

Accelerating activities
A clearer idea of the expanse of the market that beckons automation solutions providers can be attained by looking at what renewable energy equipment suppliers have been up to in the recent past; and how the burgeoning growth in investments in the sector, has fuelled capacity additions, diversifications and greenfield expansions.

In 2007, over US$70 billion was invested in augmenting the world’s renewable energy capacity in the world. Over 85 percent of this was absorbed by wind and solar energy (PV and heating). Some major developments in Asia are outlined below:

Solar energy
Moser Baer India will start producing solar PV cells in southern India in the near future. Some trendsetting projects undertaken by entrepreneurs to bring electricity to India’s remote villages by harnessing solar energy stand out conspicuously. Of the top five global producers of solar PV cells in 2006, only one was non- Asian. There was Sharp, Sanyo and Kyocera from Japan, and Suntech from China. Sharp, the leader of the pack will commence production at its new 1 GW thin-film solar cells production plantin 2010.

While photovoltaic cell manufacturing projects are underway, the upstream is also buzzing with activity as new silicon production facilities come on stream in the next few years. Chinese production of solar PV cells was one up on the US output in 2006, while Taiwan almost equalled what the American solar PV cell manufacturers put on the global market.

From electricity to heat, Solar Millennium from Germany has entered into an agreement with Chinese players, to develop 200 MW of concentrated solar power plants in the Inner Mongolia province. Further south, Germany’s Solar Fabrik recently acquired Singapore’s first solar cells manufacturing plant, Solar Energy Power.

Wind energy
In mid-2007, the American firm AES, already active in India’s thermal power sector, chalked out plans to foray into the country’s wind energy sector. Executive VP Mark Woodruff talked of the opportunity to make use of the cost advantages associated with manufacturing wind turbines in India, especially when there is so much of untapped or rather to-be-tapped-soon potential.

It would be a wait and watch as the American joins the German (Suzlon) and the Dane (Vestas) in the country’s wind power sector. India may, at the time of writing, be leading China, as far as the installed capacity of wind turbines is concerned. But it may not be too long before China pips India on its way to the top and may even move past the USA, Spain and Germany in the near future.

Biomass energy
USA-based Capstone’s micro-turbines have been instrumental in spurring the growth of power generation from biogas in remote rural areas in India. Blueprints of many new biodiesel plants were drawn up in 2006-07 in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and upstream development of jatropha plantations (India) and palm oil plantations (Malaysia and Indonesia) also took place. In addition, Daimler Chrysler has launched new initiatives in Asia, to promote the production of biodiesel.

Hydropower
Several small, micro and pico-hydropower projects in Asia are helping governments in their rural electrification programmes. Nepal, China, and India have committed investments into this sector, and independent power producers have also ventured in.

Venturing forth
The scene was set in the very recent past for industrial automation players to venture further into the renewable energy sector, which, courtesy the huge chunks of investments referred to, would be shelling out more and more money to automate processes in its value chains. Many contracts have been signed around the world, and millions of dollars have already been committed.

Germany-headquartered Pilz, for instance, has been providing automated safety solutions for the control and monitoring of wind turbines on-site. With offices and representatives all over the world (in Asia, Pilz has a presence in China, India, Turkey, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Israel and Iran), the company is wellpoised to make the most of the boom in wind energy.

Pilz’s offering enables safe detection of generator overspeed, maximum yaw error, gondola rotation, earth fault monitor and the operating mode of the wind turbine; and helps to monitor continuously the rotor blade pitch, rotor lock, emergency stop and access gates, vibration switch and the voltage of the energy supply.

If Pilz has something for the use-phase of wind turbines, National Instruments (NI) straddles the entire lifecycle of solar PV cells and wind turbines. Programmable automation controllers from NI employed by solar PV cells manufacturers cater to the everincreasing demands on the quality and performance of their outputs. Meanwhile, on-site, embedded monitoring tools serve to augment the operating efficiency of both individual PV modules and large industrial solar PV power plants.

Moving over from sun to wind, turbine blades can be tested using NI’s structural analysis tools, and vibration monitoring and power quality testing can be carried out on-site on a continuous basis, in order to determine the need for timely troubleshooting. GE Windis one prominent customer in the sector.

According to Cindy Ong, Marketing Engineer for National Instruments in Southeast Asia, the increasing amount of investments for research in the renewable energy sector – industries and universities alike – in Asia translates to a greater need for the stateof- the-art technology to measure, monitor and record data.

Over in Germany, Adept Technology’s Quattro robotic manufacturing systems, with the machine vision and motion control software, have found favour with Solar Line Saxony (SLS) – another one of the many solar energy players in the country. Quattro will reportedly enable SLS to enhance its productivity, and make the crystalline silicon PV cells it markets increasingly affordable for customers.

The Simatic PCS 7 distributed control system from Siemens is now being used by the five-year-old National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Centre in the USA, to validate and commercialise technologies to produce bioethanol more effectively at reduced costs.

And also in biofuels, GE Fanuc Automation will soon be equipping US-based SunBio Systems with its Series 90-30 controller system, running on the Proficy Machine Edition automation software, and interfacing with operators via QuickPanel touchscreens. SunBio, on the back of this offering from GE Fanuc, would be working with local recycled fats and waste oils from restaurants and homes to churn out biodiesel, from six plants before the end of the decade.

Swiss-headquartered ABB, meanwhile, will manage the control and monitoring of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity at Spain’s 100 MW Andasol concentrated solar power plant, with its Extended Automation System 800XA, Power Generation Portal software, power transformers and sub-station equipment.

As well as marketing its the Ovation SCADA software for wind energy management, Emerson Process Management recently signed a contract with Rentech to automate the latter’s waste-to-fuel and biomass-to-fuel plant. “World energy demand is expected to reach the equivalent of more than 10 trillion tons of crude oil by 2010, and nearly 16 trillion equivalent tons by 2030. Renewable, hydroelectric and nuclear sources will account for more than 10 percent of this total.

“Clearly, process automation will be one of the enablers of realizing this growth in the most efficient and energy responsible way possible. Innovative technologies and solutions are important to meeting the global demands, and to enable new sources of energy to become economically feasible,” says Peter Zornio, Emerson’s Chief Strategic Officer.

Rising expectations
Back in Asia, Tjan Hui Shi, Senior Communications Officer at Singapore’s Economic Development Board, identifies ATS Automation, Xyratex and PSB Technologies as three automation suppliers that are on the lookout for opportunities in the solar energy sector.

“Solar power is still a fairly nascent sector in Singapore. The past year has seen a number of investments from solar energy companies.

Worthy of mention is Singapore’s first solar cells manufacturing plant Solar Energy Power, which was acquired by Germany-basedSolar-Fabrik recently.

“It is expected that these companies would leverage on the local process automation capabilities that have been established over the last few decades. Both ATS Automation Asia and Xyratex are companies that have experience in PV industry automation outside Singapore while also having a local presence.

“These would be strong potential partners for foreign investors keen on infusing funds into the Singaporean PV automation sector. Both there companies have capabilities such as design, final assembly and installation and after-sales technical support. Another player on the anvil in Singapore is PSB Technologies,” says Tjan.

As far as hydropower goes, Meg Bishwakarma, General Manager of Hydro Lab in Nepal, believes while the conflict between automating and downsizing on the one hand and employment generation on the other, would continue in the Third World, automation tools have been enabling efficiency improvements in this sector in Asia.

He tells CE Asia that while turbine (Pelton wheel and Francis turbine) manufacturers are sprucing up their manufacturing capabilities, troubleshooting and reactive maintenance based on online condition monitoring of turbine units is very essential. With competition in the marketplace, and output quality and quantity and time-to-market becoming decisive factors for survival and success, renewable energy equipment suppliers will find it beneficial to avail of the automation solutions available in the market – to design and manufacture. And end-users – the producers of renewable energy – will find it economically wise to resort to automated control and monitoring to improve efficiency of production and distribution.

This then, is the backdrop, which automation solutions providers would obviously find encouraging enough, as they forecast demand for their services in the years to come. A small chunk certainly right now, but a new one, an add-on which is always most welcome. There is a proverb which goes, “When a wind blows in the east, it is good for neither man nor beast.’ It stands defied, when taken in the literal sense, because wind energy in the east would benefit all living beings – and that includes the industrial automation solutions providers as well. And they would surely be making hay while the sun shines.

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‘National Instruments’ business in this areais growing tremendously’

National Instruments (NI) serves the industry from 37 branches around the world. Cindy Ong, Marketing Engineer at the NI offi ce in Singapore, shares her thoughts aboutautomation in the renewable energy sector

Q: The move towards renewable energy has been strong in many countries in the world. With increase in demand, the production and operation phases in this sector would undoubtedly have got increasingly automated. Could you comment on any specific processes which have benefited fromNI’s technology?

A: NI facilitates green engineering through unique platform capabilities including high-speed and high-resolution measurements, advanced analysis and signal processing, highspeed and advanced control, as well as embedded system technology for more accurate and efficient designs For instance, in the case of solar power generation, the use of NI Virtual Instrumentation technology provides simpler and quicker ways to accomplish photovoltaic device measurements, such as current-voltage characterization, for better yield improvement. Wind turbine blades can be tested using NI’s structural analysis tools, and vibration monitoring and power quality testing can be carried out on-site on a continuous basis, in order to determine the need for timely troubleshooting.

And NI programmable automation controllers (PACs) have been used in fuel cells tests to provide flexible data acquisition, monitoring and control to precisely handle fuel cell operation and research.

Q: Is the size of NI’s business with the region’s renewable energy sector likely to grow?

A: With the emphasis on the need for renewable energy in the countries of Southeast Asia, NI’s business in this area is growing tremendously. The increasing amount of investments in research in the renewable energy sector (industries and universities alike) means that there is a greater need for the state-of-the-art technology to measure, monitor and record data.

In addition, the imperativeness of the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to counter the perils of global warming has also created a growing market for NI. Right from monitoring the quality of the air to regulating the amount of chemicals production facilities emit into the environment, hardware and software tools from NI help to build customizable systems to meet these needs.

Q: Singapore has been keen to encourage the growth of a solar energy industry. Is NI associatedin some way as an enabler?

A: The Clean Energy Research & Testbedding (CERT) program to stimulate research in the applications of Clean Technology in the Singapore energy sector consists of three key partners: R&D, technology providers, and implementers. At NI, we play the part of technology provider.

As a supplier of software and hardware tools for engineers and scientists, NI offers effective technologies for product design, test, and deployment. Our approach is to facilitate the use of available technology, which leaves more time to focus on domain expertise.

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‘As the size of the hydropower plant increases, automation becomes morefeasible’

Meg Bishwakarma is the General Manager of Hydro Lab (Nepal), R&D consultants for the hydropower sector in that region. He refl ects on the role hydropower could play in the economicgrowth of Nepal, and on the extent and scope of automation in the sector.

Q: Hydropower surprisingly takes a backseat when it comes to discussions on renewableenergy. Why is this so?

A: For some strange and unclear reasons, there is still a debate going on about whether to categorise hydropower as a renewable resource. Some claim that only small hydropower plants are sources of renewable energy. I would, however, aver that all hydroelectric energy should be looked upon as renewable source of energy, along with solar, wind, biofuels, etc.

Q: What role could hydropower could play in rural electrification in Nepal?

A: There are several small and micro hydropower projects in Nepal. However, as the return on investment on these is not impressive enough (owing to high initial capital costs), the private sector may not be keen to venture into it. The ball would be in the government’s court. I would say that wind, solar and small hydropower together could contribute to a greater degree of rural electrification in Nepal.

Q: Your assessment of the extent of automation in the hydropower plants?

A: In Nepal, and even in India for that matter, hydropower is still a labour-intensive industry, considering that it is predominantly in the public sector; and for any government (at least in Asia these days), economic growth needs to go hand in hand with employment generation.

The few private players in the hydropower sector in Nepal – in 1993-94, the sector was opened up to investments from the private sector – have shown that automating can improve the efficiency of operation a good deal.

While power output monitoring, for instance, is done remotely, there can still be further progress in such aspects as condition monitoring of turbines, as it would be important to assess and predict drops in performance well in advance, so that suitable remedial measures could be taken to mitigate the incidences of costlier breakdowns in the future.

As far as investments in control and monitoring systems are concerned, a high capacity plant (medium and large hydro) would have to invest much less as a percentage of its output compared to small hydropower plants. Thus, as the size of the hydropower plant increases, investments in automation become morefeasible.

Q: Are the turbine manufacturers investing in automation to spruce up their outputs?

A: It is just competition in the global marketplace and the emphasis by the hydropower plants themselves on higher-quality turbines, which are driving turbine-makers to invest in augmenting the quality of their products. Further, there are maintenance contracts as well which bind the supplier to the hydropower plant. Extended Producer Responsibility has slowly but steadily seeped into the turbine manufacturing markets.

We are however far away from an “M2M” in the hydropower sector, where suppliers would be keen to monitor their products in operation remotely and besides offering maintenance and troubleshooting advice, use the information gleaned to improve the quality of their turbines in the future.

Q: Is safety a concern in hydropower plants in Nepal?

A: Generally, any accidents occur in the construction phase of the plant. During operations, there is no chance of anyone venturing close to the turbine generator units when they are functioning, as opposed to the manufacturing sector where getting close to moving machinery is very common.

If maintenance activities are to be carried out, the unit is stopped manually before workers could enter the enclosure.

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Renewable Energy:

Asia’s Ambitions

• 65 per cent of all solar hot water collectors installed all over the world, are serving 50 million households in China

• Of the 25 million households worldwide which receive energy for lighting and cooking from anaerobic digester biogas (sourced from refuse-derived fuel and biomass), 20 million are in China, four million in India and 0.15 million in Nepal. Biomass gasifiers supply energy for silk, textiles, brick-making and rubber production applications in India

• Biomass gasifiers have been working in tandem with dual-fuel diesel engines to supply energy for rice milling and irrigation in the Philippines from the 1980s

• Indonesia allocated US$75 million in 2006-07 for rural electrification using wind, solar PV and micro-hydro power plants

• Sri Lanka has been contemplating on rural solar home systems to electrify 85 percent of its villages

• Thailand electrified 200,000 off-grid households with solar home systems in 2003-2006

• Nepal relies on 170 micro-hydro power plants to electrify 20,000 rural households

• India plans to augment cooking, lighting and motive power with renewables in 600,000 villages by 2032

• China aims to have 300 GW hydro, 30 GW biomass, 30 GW wind, 1.84 GW solar PV, and 300 million square metres of solar hot water by 2020

• Iran is striving to generate 500 MW of electricity from renewables by 2010

• South Korea would have 1.3 GW of grid-connected solar PV serving 100,000 homes by 2011

• Singapore would have installed 50,000 square metres of solar hot water facilities by 2012

• Pakistan is aiming at 10 percent renewable energy and Malaysia at five percent, by 2015

• The countries in the Middle East, with their oil wealth, at the moment, are not hard-pressed to look at non fossil fuels, but could avail of the solar energy that is incident on their landmasses. Israel however has taken big strides in availing of solar heating and solar PV

• Malaysia is eyeing the top spot in the global biodiesel market. It banks on its palm oil plantations

Data source: REN 21, 2008 (www.ren21.net)