solar power, could change that fact. According to a spokesperson for
BrightSource Energy, Oakland, Calif., a producer of large scale solar energy sys- tems, the company uses both aluminum and iron castings in their solar thermal systems (the spokesperson would not comment further on the castings used). Other renewable energy sources
employ castings more openly. Accord- ing to the North American Industry Classification System, wind energy production (which has well-publicized and hotly debated growth potential) includes castings in turbine gearboxes, hubs, the low-speed shafts used to connect the rotors to the input of the gearboxes, yaw drives, industrial fans and blowers found within the systems’ cooling and dehumidifying units, and turbine generators, which convert high-
speed shaft work into electrical energy. Geothermal power production sys-
tems, which Pike forecasts to grow 134% from 2010 to 2020, also use a number of well-known castings. Te clean, base load source of power, which Pike says accounted for an estimated 10.7 gigawatts of energy in 2010, involves using one of three primary power plant processes—dry steam, flash steam and binary cycle—to convert lower-temper- ature liquid resources into electricity. All of the processes use conventional steam turbine and generator equipment. “Worldwide potential for geother-
mal energy is immense,” said Pike senior analyst Peter Asmus. “But geothermal remains an underutilized resource and represents only a small fraction of the global renewable energy portfolio. Improved access to resource
data, more efficient drilling processes, increased understanding about the industry’s potential, and improving access to financing are driving expand- ing interest in the sector.” Te cast components involved in
geothermal power production include: • components in overhead travel- ing cranes used on the roofs of the power plants;
• centrifugal pump parts and pro- pellers used to move condensed working fluid from condensers back through vaporizers;
• nozzles and fans used in air-condi- tioning and heating processes;
• vacuum pump parts used to remove non-condensable gases;
• iron and steel pipes and tubes; • oil and gas field machinery components.
Because hybrid drivetrains (like the Toyota Prius engine shown here) include both electric and gas sections, they can include more metal castings than traditional vehicles.
30 | MODERN CASTING April 2011
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