(July 17th 2014) – London – MicroPower Global today announced an agreement with UK-based electricity-from-waste company OSPRE that consists of initial testing of MicroPower’s energy conversion devices at OSPRE’s plant, further evaluation and refinement and, subject to performance and price, gradual roll-out as new plants come on stream.
OSPRE’s end-to-end modular plant design incorporates its proprietary advanced conversion technology which is capable of converting a range of feed stocks into a high BTU gas for electricity generation. However, there is significant additional waste heat available at various points during the process. Incorporation of MicroPower’s technology into the system design may provide an attractive solution to efficiently capture and convert this waste heat, potentially increasing overall generation by as much as 10%.
Phase 1 of OSPRE’s first UK plant, based at Sutton just south of London, is scheduled to go live in early 2015 and that site is expected to expand in 2016-17 towards a 25 MW installation. OSPRE believes that a UK market implementation of more than 200 MW demand is realistic and that the aggregate demand for such waste-to-energy plants across Europe over the next 10 years could tenably approach 1000 MW.
“We are confident that our plant design will offer a reliable, efficient, scalable and replicable solution to assist the UK’s energy challenges,” said OSPRE’s Director of Innovation, Dan Henbest. “MicroPower’s “chip” technology could offer a stable mechanism of converting surplus waste heat into electricity that is highly operationally efficient, easy to integrate and low on operational maintenance and space demands. If so, and subject to achievable price points, we could anticipate including it in our standard plant configuration.”
“The agreement with OSPRE provides us with the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency of our devices at high temperature in an industrial setting,” added MicroPower’s Chairman, Max Lewinsohn. “We have been collaborating together for over two years, and we are confident that successful implementation at the Sutton plant will lead to substantial long-term business with OSPRE and its partners over the coming years.”