bined global sales of hybrid-electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles are expected to total 5.2 million units in 2020, or 7.3% of the 70.9 million passenger vehicles forecast to be sold, according to another report by J.D. Power. Other industry reports suggest low growth could be tempered by in- creased numbers of hybrid drivetrains in other transportation applications, such as trains.
Renewable Energy At last year’s Solar Power Interna-
tional event, experts suggested the ca- pacity for solar power production in the U.S. has doubled since 2009. However, the most prevalent method of capturing energy from the sun, solar photovoltaic, doesn’t require the use of many castings. A newer technology, concentrated solar power, could change that. According to a spokesperson for
BrightSource Energy, Oakland, Calif., a producer of large-scale solar energy systems, the company uses both alumi- num and iron castings (the spokesper- son declined to comment further on the castings used). Other renewable energy sources
employ castings more openly. According to the North American Industry Clas- sification System, wind energy produc- tion (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 dehu- midifying units, and turbine generators, which convert high-speed shaft work into electrical energy. Geothermal power production
systems, which Pike forecasts to grow 134% from 2010 to 2020, also use a number of well-known cast- ings. The clean, base load source of power, which Pike says accounted for an estimated 10.7 gigawatts of energy in 2010, involves us- ing one of three primary power plant processes—dry steam, flash steam and binary cycle—to convert lower-temperature liquid resources into electricity. All of the processes use conventional steam turbine and generator equipment.
Sept/Oct 2011 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | 47
“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 ac- cess to financing are driving expanding 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-con- ditioning and heating processes;
• vacuum pump parts used to remove non-condensable gases;
• iron and steel pipes and tubes; • oil and gas field machinery components. ■
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