Gas Turbine Efficiency - overcoming your power problems

EDITOR’S LETTERWELCOMEA warm welcome to this month’sissue of Worldwide IndependentPower - as always bringing youcloser to the stories and issuesaffecting on-site power andcogeneration around the world.For editorial comments, please donot hesitate to contact the editor.Aidan Turnbull- EditorBIENVENUESoyez le bienvenu à cette issue deWorldwide Independent Power.Comme d'habitude, nous vousapportons toujours plus près dessujets qui affectent l'énergie et laco-generation sur place autour dumonde.N'hésitez pas contacter lerédacteur pour des commentaireséditoriaux.WILLKOMMENHerzlich Willkommen zur Ausgabedieses Monates von WorldwideIndependent Power. Wie immerbringen wir Sie näher heran an dieEreignisse und Geschichten derStromerzeugungsindustrie rund umdie Welt.Für redaktionelle Kommentare undAnregungen wenden Sie sich bittean den Autor.BIENVENIDOBienvenido a esta edición deWorldwide Independent Power.Como siempre, acercándolo a lostemas que afectan a la energía y ala cogeneración in-situ. No dudeen contactar con nuestro editorpara cualquier cuestión editorial.BENVENUTIBenvenuti a questa nuova edizionedi Worldwide Independent Power.Come sempre cercheremo dioffrirvi storie e questioniriguardanti on-site power ecogeneration a livello globale. Percommenti editoriali, si prega dicontattare l'editore.October 2010 could signal the start of one of the mostremarkable energy-generating experiments in historywhen US scientists will use the world's most powerfullaser to try and initiate a sustained fusion reaction.It’s all happening at the £2 billion National Ignition Facility(NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California,USA, which opened last year. Here,192 laser beams will focuson a target the size of a peppercorn to trigger a self-sustaining fusion reaction, achieving 1.8megajoules through the combined energy of the beams.Some experts are calling this the ‘beginning of a revolution which could change the science andpolitics of energy generation forever’.When the nuclei of atoms are crushed so tightly together that they fuse to form a heavierparticle, nuclear fusion happens. A self-sustaining chain reaction occurs as more atomic nucleicollide, releasing huge amounts of energy in the process, in line with Einstein’s prediction, E=MC2.All stars are driven by nuclear fusion but nobody has achieved a sustained fusion reaction undercontrolled conditions because of the vast temperatures and extreme pressures required in aconfined space. Self-sustaining fusion requires conditions more intense than at the centre of theSun, with temperatures in excess of a 100° million Centigrade.Working at the NIF, the team leader Dr Siegfried Glenzer and his colleagues have reported thatearlier experiments - in which all 192 of the lasers were tested on targets empty of fuel - achieveda beam energy of about 40% the NIF's maximum. This is a very encouraging result, says Dr Glenzer.Bulletins from the NIF confirm that the preliminary attempts in the laboratory to produce a selfsustainingfusion reaction designed to generate ‘clean power’ will begin in May 2010.For more information on thisUS experiments could make clean, renewableenergy a reality? Don’t miss the real ‘stars’talking at the Joint Energy Conference atthe IP&EE Show, June 8th-10th, 2010.experiment - and a host ofother technical issues whichare more directly affectingthe cogeneration and backupsectors - don’t miss the JointEnergy Conference whereWorldwide IndependentPower and The ClavertonGroup join forces at theIndependent Power & EnergyEurope Show, held at theNEC, Birmingham, 8-10 June2010 [see page 37 for fulldetails].Everything today's energyprofessional could possiblywant can be found in onededicated exhibition complex- the UK's NEC. This is theshow which is attracting thereal focus of the the world'sbackup energy sectors.EUROPE ASIA-PACIFIC MIDDLE EASTAFRICAAMERICASW ORLDWIDE I NDEPENDENT P OWER • MARCH 20105