Capstone confident in China's turbine business
Updated: 2008-01-14 11:13
The micro-turbine industry in China is a small business as the product's name implies. But US-based Capstone Turbine Corp believes combining its environmental technologies with China's green strategy can produce booming business opportunities.
Jim Crouse, Capstone's executive vice-president, says turbines can be configured to run on nearly all fuels, especially natural gas and coal-bed methane, and their emissions can come close to zero.
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"We have good reasons to achieve that," he says.
With such a rapidly growing economy, the Chinese government has been committed to building an energy-saving and environmentally friendly society. In its first-ever energy white paper, the Chinese government outlined its strategy of focusing on energy conservation and stepping up efforts to develop renewable and clean energy. In the newly amended investment catalogue for foreign investment, China encouraged foreign companies to invest in clean technologies or launch joint research projects with Chinese partners.
"Against the background, China continues to be an important market for us," Crouse says. "We believe that Capstone Turbine will provide perfect solutions to approach the strategic objective."
Crouse joined Capstone in February 2007. Before that, he spent more than 20 years developing distributed generation projects for customers with Stewart & Stevenson, Crown Engineering & Construction and other companies. He has extensive experience with large installations of gas and diesel engines and has worked with clients and manufacturers in North America, Europe, South America, China and Canada.
Capstone opened its representative office in Shanghai last year. With a nearly eight-year presence in the country, the company has already sold more than 50 micro-turbine units in China.
Simon Xu, Capstone's greater China manager, says his company has already mapped out a strategy to expand its distribution network.
"Working with our distributor in China, Shanghai Aerospace Energy, we expect China will become one of our leading customers in the years ahead," Xu says. "The office and its gradually expanded distributor network can boost the nation's awareness of the benefits of our clean, fuel-efficient energy solutions that address China's rapidly growing need for reliable and affordable everyday energy production.
The latest installation in China is at Shanghai Aerospace Energy and it is a combined heat-and-power installation using a C30 micro-turbine driving an absorption chiller.
At Shanghai's Jiaotong University, one of China's top technical institutes, two Capstone micro-turbines are currently supplementing power. The systems' near-zero-emission exhaust directly drives an absorption chiller that creates air conditioning from heat energy instead of electricity.
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