Executive Order — Accelerating Investment in Industrial Energy Efficiency

Great article on Huffington Post about CHP.  Written by David Vognar.

As the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit, known as Rio+20, is producing mild expectations and there is still no promise of a global agreement on reducing the greenhouse gasses that cause climate change, many grassroots activists and green-minded business leaders are taking efforts into their own hands. The Beyond Coal campaign, for example, has prevented 166 coal-fired power plants from breaking ground without any national legislation. According to Mother Jones, their successes have resulted in 654 million fewer metric tons of carbon being released, or 9.5 percent of U.S. emissions, which rivals by some measures what cap and trade could have done to reduce emissions. And more and more people and factories around the world are investing in cogenerating power, or combined heat and power (CHP), another small-scale effort to control emissions and increase efficiency. This promising technology, being driven mostly by individuals and businesses, deserves some investigation.

CHP doesn’t get much attention, even among the green energy crowd in America, because it is mostly a European phenomenon. Eastern Europe gets almost one-fifth of its energy production from CHP and Germany gets almost 13 percent from the source. Denmark is far and away the leader in CHP, getting more than half of its electricity from cogeneration. In the U.S., in contrast, CHP makes up 8 percent of power production and is mostly found in industry. The EPA does have a Combined Heat and Power Partnership, so there is some higher level work being done to promote the technology, but awareness is low.

The way CHP works is quite simple. It takes advantage of usually wasted heat to turn turbines that generate electricity to be used in either other industrial capacities or to be fed to nearby buildings. The process holds great promise for increased efficiency because energy is no longer wasted, but rather put to work. As Amory Lovins and his colleagues at the Rocky Mountain Institute note inReinventing Fire, “Tripling U.S. CHP capacity to 240 GW would cut America’s total CO2 emissions by 12%.” Lovins estimates that wide adoption of CHP — expanding it from 78 GW to 187 GW — could cut back on energy used for industry by 30 percent, or 11 percent of total energy.

While global political leaders deal with economic issues that have overshadowed the environmental and energy problems, savvy business leaders and activists can push for CHP. It has benefits for business because it can save money and for the environment because it can replace a good deal of coal-fired electricity. Yet CHP has many applications beyond industry. Micro-CHP, based on the same principle of burning gas to generate electricity and heat, is gaining traction with home owners. The idea is for heat from the combustion process to warm hot water heaters and interior rooms and for the electricity to be used for appliances. Some Micro-CHP is also coupled with net metering, whereby energy not being used can be sold back to the grid or to other residences.

Cogeneration is also being undertaken with alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar. These onsite thermal generators work much the same way as regular CHP, by reusing what would otherwise be wasted heat. Some tap into the spirit of combined energy generation by adding heat-capturing features to photovoltaic technologies. Additionally, there are combined cooling, heating, and power units (CCHP), which also provide cooling needs. This triple combination is referred to as trigeneration.

Small steps toward the goal of sustainability and better technology are often the most tedious when one realizes much more could be done with public attention and resources. While there is good news about total investment in renewable energy surging by 17 percent in 2011 to $257 billion, efforts to expand less sexy, but equally effective technologies like CHP are likely to be incremental. It will take adoption by forward-thinking businesses and individuals to bring CHP to scale. Yet the impact, like that of the Beyond Coal campaign and other non-governmental efforts, could be tremendous.

Kudos to our friends at Unison Solutions.  These BioCNG stations work perfectly with a new or existing Biogas into energy project that features our Capstone Microturbines.  A facility can fill up their muni fleet for $0.20/gallon when needed and use the Biogas for electricity production when the BioCNG isn’t being used.  Found on Marketwatch.com.

MADISON, WI, Jan 19, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Dane County, Wisconsin has received the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 LMOP Project of the Year Award for its first-in-the-state efforts to fuel county vehicles with cheaper, cleaner-burning compressed natural gas (CNG), Dane County Executive Joe Parisi announced today in a joint release with Cornerstone Environmental Group, one of the private companies that partnered with the County.

The county and partners in the effort accepted the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 Project of the Year Award for the Rodefeld Landfill BioCNG Vehicle Fuel Project as part of the agency’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP).

“Dane County has led the way on a national level for its important work to protect the environment and save taxpayer dollars,” said Parisi. “This award is a testament to those efforts. I want to thank the EPA for this honor, and our project partners for making this historic project possible.”

Last April, the county partnered with several private companies that specialize in turning landfill gas into CNG, including Cornerstone Environmental Group, LLC, ANGI Energy Systems, Unison Solutions LLC, and Madison Area Technical College. Together they implemented the BioCNG system, enabling the county to fuel converted parks and public works trucks with CNG fuel that costs a mere 20 cents per gallon.

“The BioCNG process allows for the first time ever the ability to make vehicle fuel at a cost less than pipeline CNG. It is a wonderful showpiece for all the project partners and it is now being implemented nationwide at numerous landfills, waste water treatment plants and anaerobic digesters,” said Richard A. Peluso, PE, president of Cornerstone.

The change also benefits the environment. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CNG reduces carbon monoxide by 90 percent, ground-level ozone emissions by 75 percent, and greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent. It produces little or no fine particle pollution — the pollutant that’s triggered several Clear Air Action Days and Air Quality Watches in Dane County in the past year.

Because CNG burns so cleanly, natural gas vehicles cost less to maintain. CNG vehicles show significantly less engine wear, spark plugs last longer, and oil changes are needed less frequently.

The BioCNG system is currently operating at a capacity of 100 gallons of gasoline equivalent (GGE) per day, but will soon be upgraded to operate at a capacity of 250 GGE. The landfill’s BioCNG vehicle fueling station operates in conjunction with an existing system the county created to convert landfill gas into electricity. Those electricity sales earn taxpayers over $4.3 million annually.

Cornerstone contributed design, permitting and site implementation services. More information about the BioCNG process is available at www.biocng.us . ANGI Energy Systems, Inc. was responsible for the CNG fueling station refurbishment. Unison Solutions, LLC provided fabrication of the gas conditioning system and the Madison Area Technical College donated a trailer-mounted CNG fueling station.

Found on Newsworks.org by Kimberly Haas

The Philadelphia Gas Works demonstrated new energy-saving equipment at its North Philadelphia headquarters Tuesday.

When electricity is produced from natural gas, a lot of heat is created and lost. PGW’s new microturbine uses natural gas to generate electricity while capturing the heat given off during that process. It’s directed to making hot water and harnessed to run heating and cooling units for the building.

During a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Mayor Michael Nutter noted the significance of the project.

“By producing approximately 40 percent of its energy on-site, PGW will reduce its costs and also reduce its draw from Philadelphia’s electric grid,” said Nutter. “Moreover the company will also decrease any harmful emissions in the region.”

The project, funded with federal stimulus money through the state Department of Environmental Protection, was also meant to serve as a model. City Councilwoman Marian Tasco Tuesday urged other large energy customers in the audience, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Temple University, to follow PGW’s lead.

“We want you to buy one for your own,” she said.

The microturbine project is part of a larger PGW program called EnergySense, which is expected to yield further savings for customers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Really well done promo on Capstone Microturbines.  You’re invited to view.

Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST), the world’s leading clean-technology manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, today announced that it sold a C1000 that will be installed at a major hospital in Massachusetts in a combined heat and power application.

“Hospital officials chose the C1000 microturbine rather than a traditional reciprocating engine because its maintenance is so much lower, it’s quieter and it meets Massachusetts’ strict emissions requirements,” said Mike Guyder, service representative for EMCOR, the contractor that worked closely with hospital officials on selection of the power system.

“We like the Capstone product and will certainly specify it in future applications since it is clean, state-of-the-art technology,” he continued. “We already have several other projects underway that may include microturbines.”

Capstone’s New England distributor, Earthwise Energy Technologies, which is headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, worked closely with EMCOR and associated engineers to provide technical support that decision makers used to select the microturbine. Earthwise also will commission the C1000 this fall.

When commissioned, the 1 megawatt natural gas microturbine will provide 1,000 kilowatts of electricity to help the hospital meet its growing energy needs. In addition, exhaust heat from the microturbine will be fed through three Cain heat recovery modules to produce steam and heat two hot water systems, which will greatly increase onsite energy efficiency and reduce overall carbon emissions by reducing the amount of natural gas used in the existing boilers.

“With our C1000 installed in a CHP application, the hospital will significantly increase its energy efficiency,” said Darren Jamison, Capstone President and Chief Executive Officer. “Because of the system’s high efficiency levels, the project received substantial funding from the local utility and qualified for renewable energy credits from the Massachusetts Department of Energy.”

Illinois receives 46 percent of its electricity from coal-fired power plants — a cheap source of power but also one of the dirtiest.

With some companies unwilling to pay for scrubbers and pollution controls required by pending environmental regulations, many plants will close. That raises the potential for consumers’ electricity bills to jump 40 to 60 percent over the next few years as more expensive power fills the void.

As a result, policymakers are piecing together legislation to try to keep energy costs from jolting consumers. Efforts could range from pushing to add generating capacity to ramping up underutilized generating plants to rewarding users for reducing their power use, especially during peak times. Wind- and solar-generated power may suddenly grow in importance along with synthetic gas.

What follows is a look at what’s on the drawing board and an examination of possible costs. The prices represented are “levelized costs,” a measure that takes into account the cost of building and operating a generating plant (or in the case of energy efficiency, the cost to reduce power) over the lifetime of the technology. A megawatt hour is roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity 330 homes use in one hour.

Energy efficiency

What it means: reducing power use through behavioral changes, or automated or technical upgrades without altering the level of service.

Price: $0-$50 per megawatt hour

Percentage of Illinois generation: 1-2 percent reduction in electricity usage.

Benefits: The lowest-cost and lowest-emission option available, energy efficiency is about taking away the need to build more power plants. By ramping up energy efficiency, the ComEd service region could reduce 14 to 23 percent of the electricity that is used today. Jobs would be created through retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient.

Hurdles: Today, energy efficiency in Illinois is tied to utility-run programs, but energy savings from those programs are capped by law to prevent rate spikes that can only come with expensive technology investments. So far, utilities have resisted an effort to allow the Illinois Power Agency to procure energy efficiency on the open market. Businesses would compete and get paid to remove electricity load from the grid. Consumers can take steps to reduce the amount of energy they use at no cost. But consumer behavior is difficult to predict and isn’t enough to reach a 23 percent reduction. That kind of savings would require building upgrades, smart-grid technology and other investments.

Demand response

What it means: Having electricity customers power down at critical times or in response to market prices.

Price: Between $16 and $127 per megawatt day (i.e. companies are paid every day of the year for agreeing to cut back on their electricity every hour of the day during times of peak demand. For every megawatt — enough to power 1,000 homes — they receive $127).

Percentage of Illinois generation: Beginning in 2014, 14,118 megawatts will be available to power down in the PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission system that oversees the electric grid for 54 million customers in 13 states, including the ComEd region of Illinois. That’s like simultaneously turning off the electricity in 14 million homes.

Benefits: Because the most expensive forms of generation kick in when demand is highest, lowering demand quickly during peak times helps lower electricity costs for everyone.

Hurdles: Demand response is only available during certain times of day and year and doesn’t contribute to the base electricity load.

Natural gas

What it means: Combined-cycle plants use gas to generate electricity and make additional electricity from heat produced by waste.

Price: $67-$96 per megawatt hour

Percentage of Illinois generation: 2.32 percent

Benefits: New domestic discoveries of natural gas suggest the fuel should remain cheap and abundant for the foreseeable future, which would keep costs down. Combined cycle natural gas plants have capacity to produce 31 percent of the state’s electricity, but are not fully utilized and are not being tapped most of the time. If their capacity were expanded during off-peak periods, there would be little need for new generation.

Hurdles: Environmentalists aren’t enthusiastic backers of natural gas plants, which pollute about half as much as coal-fired power plants. Illinois has not used natural gas plants for baseload generation because natural gas prices have swung wildly over the years.

Carbon sequestration and capture

What it means: Instead of burning coal and emitting smoke, emissions are captured and stored or sold.

Price: $126-$152 per megawatt hour

Percentage of Illinois generation: 0 percent

Benefits: Known Illinois coal deposits potentially represent a greater energy source than the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia — if the coal can be burned more cleanly. Plants that use carbon sequestration and capture would produce about 1 percent of the emissions of traditional coal-fired power plants. An added benefit would be job creation.

Hurdles: The technology is in its early stages. Few large, integrated carbon capture and sequestration projects exist. In Illinois proponents have asked for government subsidies or guaranteed long-term contracts to attract financial backers. Environmental groups, notably the Sierra Club, have fought all uses of coal because of the environmental and health impacts that come with mining coal and shipping it to power plants, as well as the unknown effect of storing large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions underground.

Nuclear

What it means: Power created through a nuclear reaction that creates the heat necessary to produce electricity.

Price: $77-$114 per megawatt hour

Percentage of Illinois generation: 49.25 percent

Benefits: Nuclear power plants produce zero greenhouse gas emissions and are one of the cheapest and most reliable forms of electricity generation. Chicago-based Exelon Corp., ComEd’s parent, can push more power out of its existing nuclear power plants.

Hurdles: Exorbitant costs to build. Operators such as Exelon say without federal financing and loan guarantees they cannot afford to build new nuclear plants. It costs $5,283 per kilowatt to build a new nuclear plant, more than five times the cost to build a natural gas plant. Also, a national depository for storing radioactive nuclear waste has yet to materialize. Japan’s nuclear crisis has heightened safety concerns and anti-nuclear sentiment.

Wind

What it means: Energy generated by wind turbines.

Price: $65-$173 per megawatt hour (the upper end includes power produced by turbines in the Great Lakes)

Percentage of Illinois generation: 1.45 percent

Benefits: Illinois is a windy state and last year was second only to Texas in adding wind turbines. Illinois boasts more than 100 companies with more than 15,000 employees involved in wind power. Chicago is home to at least 13 global or U.S. headquarters of major wind power companies. Wind turbine projects add significant tax revenue to rural communities and provide a steady stream of income to farmers whose land is leased for turbines and transmission lines. The turbines do not pollute the air.

Hurdles: Opponents complain of sleep problems, anxiety and vertigo from the whirling blades and their shadows and noises. Because wind projects require a lot of space, they’re often placed far from the urban centers that need power. That means building transmission lines to the turbines can be costly and difficult. Illinois has a significant backlog of projects trying to get approval and financing to hook into the grid. Wind is inconsistent and most often blows at night when it is needed the least. Engineers are looking for ways to store such power so it can be dispatched when needed.

Solar

What it means: Harnessing the sun’s rays to create electricity.

Price: $134-$188 per megawatt hour

Percentage of Illinois generation: 0 percent

Benefits: Sunlight is abundant at exactly the time of day when power is most needed and doesn’t produce air pollutants. Costs also are declining rapidly. Solar power also is cheaper to dispatch at the peak of demand than gas-fired peaker plants.

Hurdles: Too inconsistent and costly to be counted on as a baseload power. Like wind, solar projects requires a large amount of space — land or rooftops — to produce enough electricity to power millions of homes. Hooking up the panels to transmission lines can be expensive.

jwernau@tribune.com

Twitter @littlewern

Roland Pirlott, a driver for Paper Transport Inc. in Green Bay, fills his rig with compressed natural gas recently at a truck stop on I-94 in Racine County. The company has seven trucks that use natural gas for a route between Green Bay and Chicago.-Michael Sears

Natural gas is rapidly becoming more than just the fuel most Wisconsin residents use to heat their homes.

As the price of crude oil continues to rise, nuclear energy comes under intense scrutiny and debate rages over ethanol and its effect on the world’s food supply, natural gas is becoming a greater focus of U.S. energy needs.

Higher petroleum prices and drilling technology that make it cheaper to extract the gas from shale rock formations are driving the trend.

“In 2008, when gasoline went to $4 (a gallon) and diesel went to $5, we couldn’t answer the phone fast enough. And we can’t answer the phone fast enough today,” said Richard Kolodziej, president of NGV America, the national trade association for natural gas vehicles.

“From a public policy point of view, there is recognition now that we have the gas, and it’s ours and we should use it,” he said.

Others, too, are reporting more interest in natural gas as a vehicle fuel.

“In the last month, there has been an uptick in inquiries about vehicle conversions,” said Brian Manthey, a We Energies spokesman. “Businesses and governments are also calling to inquire about the steps they need to take to add natural gas pumps.”

It’s similar to an increase in interest the utility said it saw three years ago, the last time gas prices topped $3.50 a gallon.

The situation is not as simple as building natural gas filling stations and converting all our vehicles to run on the fuel, though.

Natural gas is most efficient when used in furnaces for home heating or as a feedstock for chemicals, said economist Jeff Rubin, former chief economist at CIBC World Markets.

As a transportation fuel, he said, “natural gas is not a good substitute for oil.”

“There may be some opportunities on the margins, with large trucks and buses, where we can substitute it. But the bulk of the gasoline in the U.S. is consumed by private motor vehicles,” Rubin said.

There are up to 150,000 natural gas vehicles on the road today, out of about 250 million vehicles overall.

And there are 180,000 gasoline stations in the United States. There are slightly more than 1,000 natural gas stations.

The cost to convert a car from gasoline to natural gas is about $10,000. And the cost of a natural-gas fueled passenger car is about $6,000 more – the Honda Civic GX is the only such vehicle available in the U.S. – than a gasoline-fueled car, Kolodziej said.

Focus on urban fleets

The industry’s goal, though, isn’t for natural gas to take the place of gasoline for private passenger vehicles.

“Our focus is on high fuel-use urban fleet vehicles – vehicles that go out in the day and either come back to a common location or go back and forth between two locations,” Kolodziej said. “You don’t need 180,000 stations for those fleets.”

Even if it is impossible to completely replace petroleum-based fuels with natural gas, it makes sense to move in that direction, said Ethan Bellamy, senior energy research analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co.

“The U.S. has an incredible bounty at its disposal, a 100-year supply of natural gas that could eliminate our dependence on oil imports if deployed in vehicles, particularly fleet vehicles,” he said in an email.

“You are seeing multiple bottom-up conversions (to natural gas) by vehicle fleet managers,” Bellamy added. “This trickle could turn into a flood, but a nudge from government could help, particularly on the infrastructure side.”

That nudge may be coming.

A bipartisan group in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced a bill to create energy tax credits for investments in alternative uses of energy, including natural gas.

Businesses are turning to natural gas as a vehicle fuel in greater numbers.

As part of a $565 million program to put 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles on the road through 2018, AT&T has moved to deploy more than 2,000 natural gas vehicles across the country. The company saved more than 1 million gallons of petroleum fuel last year as a result, spokeswoman Jessica Erickson said. The telecommunications company has 54 hybrid and natural gas vehicles in its Wisconsin fleet.

The abundance and low price of shale gas is resulting in changes on the energy front of all sorts, whether for transportation or for generating electricity.

It was cited as a factor for Xcel Energy’s decision to halt construction of a biomass power plant in Ashland. The biomass plant was too expensive, the utility said.

Vehicles face limitations

Meanwhile, utility industry observers see natural gas as a key fuel for the years to come as power companies comply with Environmental Protection Agency rules that ratchet down the pollution generated by aging, inefficient coal-fired power plants.

“It’s trending toward natural gas as the fuel of choice,” said Mark Thimke, an energy and environment lawyer with Foley & Lardner.

The main ingredient in natural gas is methane, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Natural gas is colorless, odorless and tasteless. Mercaptan, a chemical that smells like rotten eggs, is added to give the fuel its distinct odor.

Natural gas use in vehicles faces some of the same limits as electric vehicles.

“Natural gas vehicles face significant range and infrastructure limitations, in addition to higher upfront capital costs, that drastically diminish the market for natural gas vehicles even in the presence of tax credits for capital, infrastructure and fuel,” according to congressional testimony in March from Richard Newell, administrator in charge of the Energy Information Administration.

For now, the fuel is one of the many alternatives mentioned as a contributor to ending the nation’s dependence on foreign oil imports.

“There’s no one silver bullet, so it takes a combination of all these alternative fuels going forward,” said Lorrie Lisek, executive director of Wisconsin Clean Cities, a fleet-focused outreach initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy. “What will be right for one fleet isn’t going to be the best answer for (another) fleet.”

Vehicle use increasing

Despite its limitations, the use of natural gas in transportation is increasing.

“Between 1999 and 2009, domestic consumption of natural gas in the transportation sector nearly tripled,” Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Center for Energy Policy and the Environment at the Manhattan Institute, wrote in a research paper this month. “That growth will likely continue over the coming decades, particularly if natural gas prices stay relatively low and crude oil prices rise.”

And there is a convenience factor. Gasoline is a liquid. It’s easy to fill up a vehicle with it. Natural gas is just that – a gas. To use it in vehicles, it must be compressed. To liquefy it, natural gas must be cooled to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit.

Technology is a wild card in the process.

“That could change relatively quickly if an inventor can develop a cheap, scalable process that can convert natural gas into quality liquid fuel,” Bryce wrote.

Our partners at Unison Solutions have helped install the first regional CNG station using landfill gas to fuel gas for $.20/gallon.  This will be a huge product in the coming years.

Dane County: New technology helps Dane County power trucks with trash
4/8/2011

Contact: Joshua Wescott, Office of the County Executive (608) 267-8823 or cell (608) 669-5606

Dane County First in State to Fill up County Vehicles with Landfill Gas

While prices at the pump continue to climb, Dane County is using new technology to fill-up some of its vehicles for around 20-cents a gallon.

County Executive Kathleen Falk announced today the county is the first place in the state that’s running vehicles on landfill gas.

The county, in partnership with several private companies that specialize in turning trash into bio-gas, have installed technology at the Dane County landfill that turns landfill gas into compressed natural gas (CNG). Over the next several weeks, a number of Dane County parks and public works trucks will be converting over to using this cleaner burning, less expensive bio-fuel.

At Thursday’s event, Falk demonstrated how the new filling station works.

“Filling up has never been this cheap in my lifetime,” Falk said as she noted gas hasn’t been as low as 20 cents a gallon since the 1930s. “Through innovation, we’re saving tax dollars, cleaning up our air and turning an environmental problem into a green energy opportunity,” Falk said.

Falk added the pursuit of these alternative fuels is especially important given continued volatility of prices at the pumps (gas is currently $3.75 at many area filling stations).

A few years ago, the county started converting methane gas given off by decomposing landfill trash into electricity that now earns taxpayers over $4.3-million a year. Turning a percentage of landfill methane into compressed natural gas for county cars and trucks won’t affect the amount of electricity generated.

While the methane gas given off by the landfill is essentially free, it does cost around the equivalent of 20-cents a gallon of gasoline to convert that methane into fuel that can be used by vehicles. This new compressed natural gas gets the same fuel efficiency (miles per gallon) as the regular unleaded gas that people buy at gas stations.

This new landfill gas station makes about 100 gallons of CNG each day and was developed through a partnership between Dane County, Cornerstone Environmental Group LLC, Unison Solutions Inc., Madison College, Alliant Energy, and ANGI Energy Systems, a Milton-based manufacturer and global supplier of natural gas compression equipment.

In addition to the new technology at the landfill, Falk today also announced the county will be installing a new CNG filling station at the Robertson Road offices of the Dane County Parks Department. This station was purchased through a more than $400,000 Clean Transportation federal stimulus grant the county secured through the Wisconsin Clean Transportation Program (WCTP). That same grant also helped the county purchase a number of trucks that run on CNG.

The WCTP is administered jointly by the Wisconsin Department of Administration – Office of Energy Independence and Wisconsin Clean Cities-Southeast Area. Wisconsin Clean Cities is part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Clean Cities initiative. Clean Cities supports local decisions to reduce petroleum consumption in the transportation sector through the use of alternative fuels, advanced technology vehicles, and fuel economy measures.

A number of major U.S. corporations including AT&T, FedEx, and UPS are converting their vehicle fleets to compressed natural gas to save on fuel costs.

In addition, increased use of CNG as a transportation fuel has substantial benefits for the environment. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CNG reduces carbon monoxide by 90%, ground-level ozone emissions by 75%, and greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. It produces little or no fine particle pollution – - the pollutant that’s triggered several Clear Air Action Days and Air Quality Watches in Dane County in the past year.

Because CNG burns so cleanly, natural gas vehicles cost less to maintain. They show significantly less engine wear, spark plugs last longer, and oil changes are needed less frequently.

CHATSWORTH, Calif., Apr 7, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) — Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST), the world’s leading clean technology manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, continues to grow its presence in the marine market with a recent order for two C30 liquid natural gas (LNG) microturbines that will be installed on a Type C Tanker for inland shipping and will be certified by Lloyds Register of Shipping.

The two C30 LNG Capstone microturbines, which will be installed in May, will operate in an N+1 setting for main power supply on board. Heat from the microturbine exhaust will be used in an LNG vaporizer to provide fuel to the microturbine as well as the main propulsion engines.

“The customer selected low-emission Capstone microturbines for this innovative vessel to take advantage of Capstone’s ultra-low emissions as well as our low maintenance requirements and high reliability,” said Jim Crouse, Capstone’s Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “In addition, the microturbines can easily integrate with current onboard equipment and increase onboard comfort because there’s no vibration and very low noise.”

Capstone microturbines can serve as a low-emission onboard energy source for propulsion or to power auxiliary applications. The clean and green microturbines can meet strict regulations without additional exhaust aftertreatment, which means reduced service requirements and reduced costs.

“Capstone’s influence will continue to grow in the marine market,” Crouse said. “Customers are hungry for innovative solutions that comply with current and future emission and noise regulations.”

About Capstone Turbine Corporation

Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST) is the world’s leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems, and was the first to market commercially viable microturbine energy products. Capstone Turbine has shipped over 5,000 Capstone MicroTurbine(R) systems to customers worldwide. These award-winning systems have logged millions of documented runtime operating hours. Capstone Turbine is a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Combined Heat and Power Partnership, which is committed to improving the efficiency of the nation’s energy infrastructure and reducing emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. A UL-Certified ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certified company, Capstone is headquartered in the Los Angeles area with sales and/or service centers in the New York Metro Area, Mexico City, Nottingham, Shanghai and Singapore.

The Capstone Turbine Corporation logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=6212

This press release contains “forward-looking statements,” as that term is used in the federal securities laws, about lower operational cost, additional reliability and durability, the environmental advantages of our products and success in the marine market. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as “expects,” “objective,” “intend,” “targeted,” “plan” and similar phrases. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties described in Capstone’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that may cause Capstone’s actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied in such statements. Capstone cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. Capstone undertakes no obligation, and specifically disclaims any obligation, to release any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

“Capstone Turbine Corporation” and “Capstone MicroTurbine” are registered trademarks of Capstone Turbine Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com