With the climate warming, the seas rising, the flooding of portions of Miami and other East Coast cities a regular occurrence and the government already spending millions to relocate people living on inundated islands, it’s time to experiment.
The city of Concord and the state of New Hampshire are in the final stages of deciding whether to drop Concord Steam as the provider of heat for downtown buildings after a century or so of relying on the company. As a demonstration project, Manchester inventor Dean Kamen and his company, DEKA Research, want to heat one of the state’s buildings with a Stirling engine capable of producing up to 10,000 watts of electricity, plus heat for the building.
There would be no upfront cost to the state, though it would pay for electricity and heat at a price guaranteed to be no more than the state is currently paying. Any changes to be made to the building to accommodate the new energy source would be at DEKA’s expense, as would be the cost of reversing the changes if need be. There is no downside, but a large potential upside, for the state and taxpayers in saying yes.
The Stirling engine is about as old as steam power itself. It was invented in 1816 by a Scottish minister, Robert Stirling, who was seeking a replacement for the steam engines of the time, whose boilers were want to explode with catastrophic consequences.
Stirling’s solution: use an external heat source and seal the engine itself. The engine works on the same principle used in refrigerators. Compress a gas and its temperature increases; allow the gas to expand and it cools.
Stirling’s original engine worked, as do tiny demonstration models that run on the heat from the palm of one‘’’s hand. But the materials and technology to construct an affordable and reliable large-scale Stirling engine did not exist, not apparently, until Kamen and his army of geeks on the banks of the Merrimack developed them.
Kamen’s engine is about the size of a large washing machine and, with storage battery, weighs 1,500 pounds. It can be run on natural gas or heat sources like methane from decomposing cow manure, solar power, olive oil or pretty much anything that burns. The state model would use natural gas.
A bill sponsored by Sen. Jeb Bradley calls for DEKA to provide the state with a complete analysis of the project within six months of the conclusion of its first operational year. The results should be fascinating.
Theoretically, a Stirling engine can achieve 50 percent efficiency, but comparing apples to apples isn’t easy. When electricity is generated centrally, line loss can consume up to 20 percent of the power, depending on distance. Steam, in Concord’s case, is produced using locally sourced wood chips, creating jobs and keeping money in the local economy. But the process, given Concord Steam’s old equipment, is inefficient.
Kamen believes that a decade from now, homes will be heated and powered by Stirling engine units of various sizes, and electricity from central power plants will go the way of land-line telephones. Maybe, maybe not. His insulin pump and other medical devices have changed the lives of millions, but his much-
ballyhooed Segway, at least so far, remains a novelty.
If Kamen is right, however, it could put his company and New Hampshire, an aging state with a shrinking population, in the forefront of a major energy development. The result could be jobs and a kick-started economy.
The state and its political subdivisions should be, when it can be done at little or no risk to taxpayers, partners in making New Hampshire a laboratory of invention and creativity. The Legislature, governor and Executive Council should support Bradley’s bill.