ANZ ecomagination challenge winner set up to develop renewable energy technologies

Cardiff, Wales -- During March, several companies focused on developing low-carbon innovations were announced as winners of GE’s first ever ecomagination Challenge in Australia and New Zealand. The five winners, each awarded a total of AUD$100,000, will develop innovative renewable and smart energy applications in fields as diverse as wave power and engine technology. So, how do the new technologies work? And what are the prospects for future scale-up and commercialisation?

Bombora Wavepower

The first winner, Bombora Wave Power, will continue the development of its wave power technology, consisting of a V-shaped concrete device that can be mounted on the sea bed close to shore in water depths of between four and 15 metres.

As Glen Ryan, Director at Bombora Wavepower, explains, the award will be used to initiate Bombora's next development phase, which will consist of further performance validation and design optimisation. According to Ryan, the company will also be "engaging with GE and exploring an array of technical and commercial options to leverage off their global knowledge and skill base" to enable it to bring the technology to market as quickly as possible.

For brother Shawn Ryan, the main technological challenge lies in "deploying a device in a marine environment, ensuring it operates reliably over the life of the project and that it can be easily maintained." Even though he admits that Bombora are at "a much earlier stage" than other developers, he stresses that the company has spent "considerable time and effort" in ensuring that its device meets these requirements.

"We have a very simple process characterised by minimal moving components and we have minimised their exposure to the sea," he says.

Ultimately, Bombora’s goal is to be cost competitive with onshore wind, but the company will initially focus on deployments that have both a favourable industry incentive and wave resource. Although the highest yielding wave resources are typically in the mid latitudes and on the western facing coasts Ryan says that Bombora’s strategy has focused on developing a device that can also be deployed in lower yielding coastlines.

Following a two year design and engineering phase, Bombora will embark on a three year program to construct, install and test its first commercial demonstrator — with the device becoming operational around half way through the process.

"Bombora has some preliminary sites identified locally in Western Australia and will be working with governments to enable this to happen," says Ryan.

Engineair

Melbourne, Australia-based company Engineair will use its award for the further development of its novel air motor engine technology — based on a unique rotary piston concept. According to Angelo Di Pietro, Managing Director at Engineair, the engine uses compressed air, or any other pressurised medium, as the driving power, does not have a conventional crankshaft and is not subject to reciprocating motion, resulting in no vibration.

"It is clean, non-polluting and [does] not rely on petroleum. It can be charged up from a filling station in a matter of minutes, rather than hours compared to batteries," he says.

The concept, known as a Rotary Air Engine, is based on a simple cylindrical rotary piston, which rolls without any friction, inside a cylindrical stator. Di Pietro says that there is "no technical obstacle" to the scale-up of his technology and, with adequate funding, he believes that filling stations and other operational infrastructure will be relatively easy to establish.

"The technology is ready for manufacturing — with a company such as GE, the product can be sold around the world within a year," he says.

Greensync

Meanwhile, Melbourne-based Greensync will further development of an advanced software tool that enables electricity network planners to find alternatives to capital infrastructure projects. According to Phil Blythe, Managing Director at Greensync, the genesis of the technology — which reduces energy consumption by 3 percent and costs by 10 percent through monitoring and managing loads at peak times — came from working with the Australian electricity utilities on demand side management (DSM) programs.

"Our technology is software, data and highly refined algorithms that runs in the cloud. We use them to model the electricity networks, the load that flows through them, and the costs associated with all aspects of the network, such as starting a diesel generator, connecting solar, switching off large plant loads, and so on. The result is that planners can create a scenario, and forecast how the network will behave with all of these elements present," says Blythe.

The Ecomagination award will be spent on further R&D and testing, with the plan being to test the software on real network elements over 2013 and 2014.

"Big challenges for us are the number of variables involved in network design, and what simplifications we can make to enable us to build a usable tool. If we add too much detail, it will become too cumbersome and expensive, and not meet its original objective of providing planners with tools to help them move off a relatively low base in designing and costing DSM programs," says Blythe.

"Our commercialisation is initially focused on Australia and New Zealand at this point in time, to which we have several utilities with whom we are speaking with for forthcoming trials. Beyond that, we will towards the international markets in U.S. and Europe through partnerships," he adds.

Outpost Central & Hydroxsys

Two more winners, Auckland-based companies Hydroxsys and Outpost Central, will use their awards to further development of their water management technology.

Hydroxsys has designed membrane technology that captures and recycles 90 percent of water and around 85-90 percent of energy from industrial processes to be fed back into the manufacturing process.

Meanwhile, Outpost Central has developed a small battery-powered device to connect water meters and sensors to the cloud to provide detailed information on water consumption and efficiency. Current customers include water utilities, farmers, mining companies and large industrial users of water.

"The Outpost web platform transforms them from being blind to their water consumption to having rich information on their usage patterns. One customer identified 290 million liters per year of water savings by identifying leaks, faulty equipment and improved irrigation efficiency within a few months of deploying the Outpost system," says James Riddell, Director at Outpost Central.

"The cash prize has been fantastic, but even more important to us has been the recognition of our efforts and vision by GE — a global leader in innovation and sustainability," he adds.

Although it was 'relatively easy' to get the first systems up and running, Riddell explains that the real technological and operational challenges come from scaling the technology and the business processes as the company grows.

"There are so many processes and developments that go on behind the scenes in a growing technology company. Manufacturing in volume, automated test systems, billing systems, support systems, reducing the cost to allow margin for distribution channels, scaling the databases and software, finding good people to join the team. Creating a prototype is the easy part!" he says.

"The advantage of our architecture is that we have full visibility of every device we ever sell as they are all connected to our cloud platform. This gives us vital feedback for support and the continuous improvement of the technology," he adds.

The product is already commercialised, with customers in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Asia and Europe — with a long-term aim being to find the right partners to "begin a push into Europe and the U.S."

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Road China's Silk city develop new energy to protect environment

A town on the old Silk Road, strive to develop solar and wind energy, drive the local economy and to protect of the endangered environment characterized by its desert OASIS threatened.

Earlier this month, the national energy expressed his support for Dunhuang in the northwestern province of Gansu Administration (NEA) even in the city in the country to create first nation-level pilot of the new energy development.

Dunhuang, the Mogao Caves and beautiful scenes of the oases, received the renowned world heritage site in more than 1.5 million tourists from the and abroad last year.

According to the city development plan the electric power generated by solar and wind power in Dunhuang, it is expected that by 2015 of 2.2 million tonnes of coal produced be the same. The amount of power will be almost three times as much as the city power until then.

The local Government hopes that the new energy economy drive the local economy that currently consume of water depends on the agricultural sector.

Dunhuang, is five times as large as Shanghai with an area of more than 30,000 square kilometres. But it is surrounded by desert and wasteland, such as the oases only 4.5 percent of the region, covered according to Sun Yulong Party Chief of the city.

The population growth and massive land reclamation over the past decades have the ecology of Dunhuang which damaged oasis with natural wetlands and forests shrink rapidly, Sun said.

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Crosstex energy and Apache Corporation, jointly develop, Permian Basin project

DALLAS-(BUSINESS WIRE) - The Crosstex energy companies, Crosstex energy, L.P. (NASDAQ: XTEX - News) (the partnership) and Crosstex energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: XTXI - News) (Corporation), announced today the partnership and Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA - News) invest together $ 85 million in a new natural gas of construction of processing facility in the Permian Basin in West Texas. The first phase of the project development in Glasscock County, offers intermediate and long-term image processing solutions, compression, and residue gas takeaway for Apache Deadwood. Crosstex and Apache is financed the project of processing as well and each working an interest hold 50 per cent. Crosstex will buy separately, and update a nearby rail terminal transport of natural gas liquids (NGL) deploy to the Eunice fractionation facility in the South of Louisiana.

First of all, Crosstex and Apache installed a cooling system with a capacity of 20 million cubic feet (MMcf), per day as an interim gas processing solution, compression, and food to take away, that are expected 2011 foreseen by the fourth quarter. A cryogenic processing plant with a capacity of 50 MMcf per day is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2012. Crosstex will manage construction and operate of the facilities.

"Crosstex is excited by this common interest project with Apache, a leading independent energy company, which runs for nearly 20 years in the Permian Basin in West Texas and is one of the largest manufacturers in the region start with one active drill program." "We are very pleased that Apache with creative midstream solutions can provide Crosstex for their gas and NGL products," said Barry E. Davis, Crosstex President and Chief Executive Officer. "We look forward to continuing our long-term cooperation with Apache."

"This transaction provides Crosstex with considerable space for future growth in the Permian Basin, where we see additional business opportunities," Davis added.

In addition to purchase Crosstex and updating the abandoned Patriot Fractionator in Midland County. The system is updated and renovated to first terminal for Apache NGL make raw as a rail are used. Crosstex will transport via rail to the Eunice fractionation plant in south central Louisiana for fractionation and NGL distribution. Product will be delivered to the mesquite terminal via existing NGL pipelines or by truck. Crosstex is $ 12 million in the project invest, the completed and in the fourth quarter of 2011 to be in operation. This facility will provide for the limited infrastructure of Perm NGL takeaway until a long-term pipeline solution is available.

About the Crosstex energy companies

Crosstex energy, L.P., a midstream gas company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, operates some 3,300 km of the pipeline, nine processing plants and three fractionators. The partnership provides U.S.-daily currently for 3.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, or about six percent of the marketed production.

Crosstex energy, Inc. has 2% General Partner interest, a 25 % limited partner interest and the incentive distribution rights Crosstex energy, L.P.

Learn more about the Crosstex of companies can be found at www.crosstexenergy.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on certain assumptions of the partnership and the society on the basis of management experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors that believe the partnership and Corporation are suitable in the circumstances. These statements include, but are not limited to statements regarding forecasts with regard to capacity, discussed cash flow, incremental investment and timing for ever for the projects over, as also the partnership future growth and profitability. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and beyond the control of the partnership and Corporation, which may result in the partnership, and actual results significantly differ from those of the Corporation implies uncertainty, of which many are or expressed in forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to risks in the partnership and the Corporation discussed are filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The partnership and the Corporation are not bound to publicly update or change all forward looking statements and as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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