ClimateWell AB, the Solar Cooling® company, from Sweden and its business partners develop and market energy efficient indoor climate solutions for use in residential, commercial and industrial buildings. Its triple state absorption process is a patented technology which transforms heat into cooling without using electricity. ClimateWell AB and its management team received various international awards and recognitions for their innovation. The company offers its solutions through its partners around the world. The time of year when cooling is needed also offer the most Solar irradiation.If heating and cooling of buildings were to be done by Solar energy we would lower the global energy consumption by more than 20%.Once again it’s summer in the USA—time for outdoor activities like picnics, camp fires, swimming, golf and baseball. It’s also time for using, and generating, more electricity. The hot summer months are unbearable for many without air conditioning, and AC requires copious supplies of electricity.

It isn’t easy, energy-wise, to take heat or humidity out of the air to make it cooler. Luckily, the nation has a trump card to play in satisfying the need for more electric power during times of peak demand: natural gas from recently drilled American shale wells. This gas is being used to fire gas turbines, sending extra supplies of electricity into the power grid. The legacy of the latest drilling boom is still paying dividends. More and more frequently, summer electricity is natural gas-generated electricity.ac unit operating cost calculator Electricity usage in the USA varies daily depending on an assortment of factors like the weather, time of year, industrial and commercial applications, and other reasons. outside heating/air conditioning unitsHowever, it is the summer months that normally result in the highest demand for electric power.central air conditioner units brands

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), an estimated 4,087,381 Thousand Megawatt-hours (TMWh) of electricity were generated at American, utility scale facilities in 2015. The highest monthly totals were recorded in June, July and August of last year: 362,917, 401,536 and 393,704 TMWh, respectively. The lowest monthly totals were reported in the spring and autumn, including April’s total of 294,218 TMWh, which was about 27 percent lower than July’s total. Likewise, natural gas was the fuel that utility companies turned to for most of the excess capacity requirements. The EIA reported natural gas-fired power generation increased about 19 percent in 2015. For example, last July, gas-powered plants produced about 141,365 TMWh of electricity, the EIA said. Again, comparing it to April, a month requiring much less electric power, natural gas facilities manufactured only about 93,000 TMWh, about 35 percent less than in July. At different times of the year, natural gas and coal still trade places regarding which natural resource makes the most electricity.

However, there’s no doubt regarding which fuel is on the rise and which fuel is declining in importance. Each year, additional coal plants are shut down. The EIA reported at the end of 2014 there were 1,749 natural gas electric power plants in the USA and 491 coal power plants. Ten years earlier, at the end of 2004, there were 625 coal plants and 1,670 gas plants. Using data from February 2016, the EIA reported that coal was still the most popular electricity source in 20 individual states. In fact, only two states, Rhode Island and Vermont, had no coal plants at all. Natural gas, while growing in importance, was listed as the leading source in 17 states: Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia. This included some of the biggest petroleum producing states that we all know and love like Alaska, California, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

For the bulk of their electricity, the remainder relied on nuclear energy (six states: Arizona, Illinois, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina), hydroelectric (five states: Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont and Washington), biomass and wood products (Maine), and petroleum (Hawaii). Because of low natural gas prices, increased gas-fired generation capacity and coal power plant retirements, natural gas will eventually become the leading electricity maker in the USA on an annual basis, year after year. Brand new gas producing plants, and new natural gas generators at existing facilities, are being built or planned in many different states. “Growth in natural gas-fired generation capacity is expected to continue over the next several years,” the EIA reported in a Today In Energy report published in May 2016. As much as 18.7 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity is expected to come online between 2016 and 2018. Not too surprisingly, many of the new facilities under construction are close to major shale gas areas in Texas and in the Mid-Atlantic states.

“Texas produces more natural gas than any other state and is home to major shale plays including the Barnett and Eagle Ford shales,” the EIA said. Natural gas infrastructure has been added in and near the Marcellus and Utica shale regions of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Furthermore, other states like Virginia, Massachusetts and Florida are also expanding pipeline networks and building new gas-fired generators. Florida is building at least three new gas-fired plants. “Although the state has no shale gas production, the retirement of older, less-efficient coal units and the replacement of some oil-fired capacity has led to the expansion of regional pipeline networks to bring more shale gas to serve gas-fired generation,” the EIA said. Natural gas is used extensively in residential, commercial and industrial applications. For 2015, the EIA estimated 25.032 trillion cubic feet of natural gas (Tcfg) was delivered to consumers. Of this amount about 9.7 Tcfg, or about 38.6 percent of the total usage was for electric power generation.

Industrial use amounted to about 7.5 Tcfg (or about 29.9 percent), residential use was at 4.6 Tcfg (18.4 percent), and commercial use was at 3.2 Tcfg (12.8 percent). Vehicle consumption for compressed natural gas was less than 1 percent of the total, or about 34 billion cubic feet (Bcfg). According to the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) , a trade association headquartered in Washington, D.C., industrial purposes include providing energy for everything from mining minerals to processing food. The commercial market is for heating and cooling office buildings, hospitals and schools, and for cooking in restaurants. And the residential market provides energy for home heating, hot water, cooking, clothes drying and air conditioning with natural gas powered AC units. The NGSA explains that both gas turbines and combustion engines are used to generate electricity. In these types of units, instead of heating steam to turn a turbine, hot gases from burning fossil fuels (particularly natural gas) are used to turn the turbine and generate electricity.

Gas turbine and combustion engine plants have been traditionally used for peak-load demands, because it is possible to quickly and easily turn them on and off. These plants have increased in popularity due to advances in technology and the availability of affordable natural gas. Much of the electric sector increase can be attributed to “fuel switching,” where electric utilities temporarily switch to using natural gas-fired power plants due to lower fuel costs, the NGSA said. A more permanent shift to gas-fired generation is caused by the retirement of coal-fired power plants as companies anticipate compliance with the U.S. EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule. The contribution of natural gas to the U.S. economy cannot be understated, explained Dena E. Wiggins, NGSA president and CEO in a May 2016 news release. “During seven months of 2015, electricity generated from natural gas exceeded coal generation, providing affordable energy prices and helping U.S. carbon emissions reach their lowest levels since 1993,” she said.

“We’ll need to use even more natural gas in the future, and to construct and develop more pipeline and natural gas infrastructure in order to meet future economic and climate objectives.” Established in 1965, the NGSA represents integrated and independent companies that supply natural gas and encourages the use of natural gas within a balanced, national energy policy. Meanwhile, hot temperatures this summer will necessitate the use of more electricity—and air conditioning—in all 50 states. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated air conditioning units are present in more than 116 million American households. Most of these are central air conditioning systems, servicing the whole house or building. However, many households, especially in the Northeast states, use room AC units, mounted on windows or walls. Of course, some have no air conditioning at all. Arizona leads the way in AC usage. Government statistics indicate approximately 87 percent of the homes in the Grand Canyon State have central air conditioning systems, followed by Florida (86 percent of homes) and Texas (85 percent).

Remarkably, 25 percent of the energy consumed in Arizona homes is for air conditioning, which is more than four times the national average of 6 percent. Whenever possible, oilfield workers are not reluctant to using air conditioning during work hours either. Some wellsite trailers have AC units installed and can be used on location, especially if they have access to the local electric grid. Others might employ fans or “swamp coolers,” which take the humidity out of the air through evaporation. Remember, evaporation is a cooling process. These units can be powered by generators at the wellsite. Many work crews, if they get a chance, will also sit in their air-conditioned trucks to get a break from the excessive heat in places like West Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, or elsewhere. It’s better than suffering from heat stroke! So this summer stay cool, America! Don’t be afraid to use more electricity. More often than not, natural gas will be the fuel of choice, manufacturing the juice that we all need.