Valero Refining Texas Lp Bill Greehey Refinery Corpus Christi Refinery Energy Initiatives

http://texasiof.ces.utexas.edu/PDF/Presentations/May262010-EMF/Valero%20Presentation.pdf

Valero Overview
-Valero Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 company based in San Antonio, and is North  America's largest independent petroleum refiner and marketer. Valero supplies fuel and  products  that improve people's lives with 15 refineries and 10  etahnol plants stretching from California to Canada to the Caribbean.
-Valero's efforts in alternative energy range from production of corn ethanol to wind energy  to investments in emerging bio-fuels development.
-Valero's company-owned retail Corner Stores offer customers fast, friendly service in a safe and clean environment

Bill Greehey Refinery Overview
-Valero commissioned the grass-roots Corpus Christi refinery in 1983, now referred to as the

Bill Greehey Refinery West Plant
-In 2001 Valero acquired a 115,000 BPD refinery, now referred to as the Bill Greehey Refinery East Plant
-East and West plant facilities have a total feedstock throughput capacity of aboutv 315,000 BPD
-Refinery has three independent steam systems and two fuel gas systems
  -East and West fuel gas systems reveive gas from a third party supplier in addition to internally produced gasses
-Hydrogen is purchased from two outside suppliers as well as produced internally
  -East,West and Valero Three Rivers Refinery hydrogen systems connect via third supplier networks as      well as Valero owned East/West tie line
-The refinery purchases power as well as produces power from internally produced waste energy

Historic Energy Activities
-Steam Trap  Program
-Surveys completed every one two years
-Costs associated with improperly functioning traps are quantified and repairs scheduled
-Historic failure rate has been 3.5%

-Corporate Energy Scorecard
-Program has been in place since 2006
-Individual items rported include such things as Solamon Ell, heater and broiler excess air stack temperatures, Crude Unit heater approach temperatures, steam balancing and venting,  hot rundown giveaway, slop reprocssing, amine strengths and loadings and ammonia content of stripped sour waters
-Individual items are weighted and an overall score assigned

Solamon Energy Corp News : Land of the rising sun flips the switch on solar

http://www.solamonenergy.com/land-of-the-rising-sun-flips-the-switch-on-solar 

Posted onMay 1, 2012underIndustry News

(Bloomberg) — Japan’s proposed incentives for renewable energy will boost solar panel installations and help wean the nation off nuclear power, industry lobby groups and developers said.

A government panel Wednesday recommended solar power providers earn 42 yen (52 U.S. cents) a kilowatt-hour for the electricity they produce, three times the 13.65 yen charged to industrial and commercial users, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The preferential rate, known as a feed-in tariff, for solar power was recommended for 20 years.

“The start of the feed-in tariff program will be a major step forward to expand the solar power market,” said Tetsuo Kuba, president of Kyocera Corp., a solar panel maker. “We will expand our businesses in the mega-solar market,” Kuba said in a statement.

The panel’s recommendation, which must be approved by Industry Minister Yukio Edano, marks another step in scaling back atomic power following the disaster at the Fukushima Dai- Ichi Plant last year and reducing carbon emissions linked to fossil fuel use.

Japan currently gets about 9% of its electricity from renewables. The government’s feed-in tariffs will require power utilities to pay above-market rates for electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

Wind and Geothermal

Wind-generated power was recommended at 23.10 yen a kilowatt hour for plants with the capacity of 20 kilowatts or more and 57.75 yen for smaller ones, both for 20 years.

For geothermal, the panel suggested 27.30 yen a kilowatt hour for plants with the capacity of 15,000 kilowatts or more and 42 yen for smaller plants, both for 15 years.

The feed-in tariffs will be introduced in July to spur investment in solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and hydroelectric power generation.

The program will replace an earlier one called “renewable portfolio standards” that require electricity retailers to buy set amounts of clean power at a price negotiated between the buyer and seller, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

“I hope various players will enter the clean energy market,” Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of Softbank Corp., Japan’s third-largest mobile-phone company, told reporters.

Atom to Sun

Son said earlier this year he plans to build solar power plants with more than 200 megawatts of capacity across Japan, according to the website of Softbank’s renewable energy unit SB Energy Corp.

Son said he may expand that target. “I want to increase our solar capacity a little more than I said earlier,” he said, adding that Softbank is also considering locations for wind power.

Similar incentive programs that have helped countries such as Spain and Germany increase solar installations prompted them to reduce tariffs as construction surged.

In France, to end what it has called a “speculative bubble,” the country imposed a three-month freeze in December on solar projects to devise rules that could include caps on development and lowering feed-in tariffs. The tariffs were cut twice in 2010.

In August, Japan’s parliament approved legislation for the feed-in tariffs to help diversify its energy mix following the disaster at the Fukushima plant in March 2011. Atomic power provided about 30% of the country’s electricity before the Fukushima crisis.

Japan is set to be nuclear free for the first time in more than four decades next month as the last of its 50 operating reactors is scheduled to be shut for maintenance. All the facilities are being kept offline pending safety tests and government approval for restarts.

Tax Factor

Mitsue Usami, a spokeswoman for Eurus Energy Holdings Corp., a renewable energy developer, said the solar tariff of 42 yen announced Wednesday includes a 5% tax. If that is deducted, the rate is actually 40 yen, or below what the industry association suggested.

Yugo Nakamura, an analyst for BNEF in Tokyo, said there is still room to cut costs.

The government panel cited the cost of 325 yen per watt to build a solar plant when making their price recommendations, according to the industry ministry. The global average is 180 yen per watt, according to BNEF data.

The Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association had recommended a tariff of 42 yen for 20 years for solar, while the Japan Wind Power Association had suggested a wind tariff of up to 25 yen over 20 years for bigger producers.

Get in First

The Japan Geothermal Developers’ Council had recommended the tariff of 25.8 yen a kilowatt-hour for 15 years for bigger suppliers. Yesterday, the panel recommended hydro power between 25.20 yen and 35.70 yen a kilowatt-hour for 20 years depending on the size of a plant.

Biomass was suggested between 13.65 yen and 40.95 yen, depending on the types of fuel, for 20 years.

While the scheme initially offers guaranteed prices for 15 to 20 years, the government will review the tariffs and the time period every year, meaning developers who get in first will get the best profit opportunities as the tariffs may be lowered in subsequent years. Rates are also expected to be higher for the first three years to pump up incentives for developers to invest.

“Those rates are not high, but not low, either,” Kazuhiro Ueta, environmental economics professor of Kyoto University who heads the panel, said at a briefing Wednesday. “The program is designed to give favorable rates for the first three years, so we factored that in.”

The panel will meet again Friday to finish their recommendations, according to Ueta.

by Chisaki Watanabe, Bloomberg News

Solamon Energy announces philanthropic program; annual renewables energy pitch contest for students

Solamon Energy is pleased to introduce an annual program to find the most talented young entrepreneurs in Jamaica focused on innovative solutions in the energy sector, including new wind and marine technologies. “Like people around the world, we found Jamaicans obsessed with solving their country’s energy crisis,” explains Jay Yeo, Solamon President. “Our CEO and SVP both reported Jamaicans are active on several levels and confident the answer lies in solar arrays.”

Tentatively titled Power People, Solamon SVP Christian Giles will develop and launch the competition in Jamaica, in conjunction with Solamon SVP Ainsley Brown who will coordinate local media and sponsorships. At the championship event, July 2012, Solamon Energy will award The Solamon Cup and a cash prize to the winning team, as selected by a panel of qualified judges. Eventually, these winners will compete against teams from other countries, and a Grand Champion ultimately selected by popular vote.

With Jamaica’s energy policy in place and its leaders firmly determined to execute, it is widely expected the country’s vibrant manufacturing sector will turn their rooftops over to solar arrays, reducing costs and becoming more productive and competitive. With each solar array uniquely designed, this fact will increase the demand for new and innovative solutions as well.

“New technologies are introduced each day,” states Yeo, “In terms of integrating new technologies, great ideas are singularly the most important reason we are launching the competition, and we’re certain many more great ideas will be presented by the competitors each week.”

The government of Jamaica is aiming to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels substantially by 2030 and renewable energy plants are expected to supply 20% of the country’s electricity.

“With a competent distribution of 2MW arrays, we agree Jamaica can reduce its oil imports significantly,” explains Yeo. “Yes, we need to be creative in switching economies to renewable source of energy, but also to properly insulate homes and businesses and not waste energy. We have been able to speak to many people in our recent visits and they are confident the sun should be powering their country.

“We will be working with many schools,” adds Yeo, “drawing upon aspiring engineers and teaming them with marketing students to present in a competition how their idea will save the world. We think these pitches will make a great TV series and, from among the best of the idealists, perhaps we’ll introduce a realist who flatly states how many marketing dollars would be required to commercialize the venture.”

Energy drives all industries in Jamaica, from transportation to tourism, and from mining to manufacturing. The cost of generating electricity is forcing the government to expedite steps to attract solutions to deliver renewable, sustainable and cheaper energy. Eager for change and assuring the government that its children are aware of the problems, UTech recently sponsored a competition and students were showcased on Jamaican television promoting their solutions.

In Jamaica, the government’s energy policy offers many challenges and many opportunities. Within the Ministry of Energy and Mining, The Energy Division is cognizant that the people of Jamaica are frustrated but the the necessary steps to deliver a comprehensive framework in which to assure the renewable sector. “A successful strategy will require all levels of government to cooperate with each other, on behalf of the people, to ensure energy production well into the future. They too will need to listen to our winners,” Yeo concludes. 

Lawrence Solomon

Lawrence Solomon is a Canadian writer on the environment and the founder and executive director of Energy Probe, a Canadian non-governmental environmental organization. His writing has appeared in a number of newspapers, including The National Post where he has a column, and he is the author of several books on energy resources, urban sprawl, and global warming, among them The Conserver Solution (1978), Energy Shock (1980), Toronto Sprawls: A History (2007), and The Deniers (2008).

Solomon opposes nuclear power based on its economic cost, is a global warming skeptic, and has been critical of government approaches and policies used to address environmental concerns.

Solomon writes that he was an adviser to President Jimmy Carter's task force on the environment in the late 1970s, which released The Global 2000 Report to the President in 1980. He has a regular column in The National Post, and has written for The Globe and Mail, National Review Online, CBS News, and The Wall Street Journal. He was the editor and publisher of Next City magazine, now defunct.He has also written for American Forests, an environmental conservation organization.

Serving as executive director of the Urban Renaissance Institute, a division of Energy Probe, Solomon has advocated environmental protection, conservation, and safeguards throughout the world, especially in non-affluent nations. He supports reforms in foreign aid, putting a stop to nuclear power expansion, and supports the privatization of transport projects and the expansion of toll roads. "I note that Lawrence Solomon continues to advocate road tolls, and the privatization of the TTC (like London) for Toronto's transportation system." Bruce Campion-Smith  In his columns and his book Toronto Sprawls: A History, he blames government policy for exacerbating and encouraging sprawl. He is a critic of subsidies to rural Canada,[11] and has criticized Ontario Hydro's actions and projects and their effects on Canada's environment.He writes that he was very active during the 1970s and 1980s with Energy Probe in opposing attempts to expand the use of nuclear power in Canada.

Global warming

In a series of articles and a companion book published in 2008, The Deniers, Solomon writes about scientists whose views and research, according to Solomon, contradicts what he calls the alarmist view of global warming presented by Al Gore, the IPCC and the media. The book featured on C-SPAN's Book TV on May 11, 2008. Reviews of the book have appeared in the Washington Times, Vancouver Sun, Alternatives Journal, and other publications.

In December, 2008, an executive from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy sponsored a debate about global warming between Lawrence Solomon and Dr. Jay Gulledge of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, who took the opposite view. Solomon's blog has been mentioned in U.S. News & World Report's website concerning carbon emissions reduction legislation.

Wikipedia

Solomon claims he has had negative experience editing Wikipedia. He has written columns criticizing Wikipedia's articles on global warming and other topics, including his own Wikipedia biography page, saying that they were edited by "zealots" and that Wikipedia was "modern propaganda."[22][23][24][25][26] He has also criticized the edits of William Connolley.

Clash of civilizations

On December 29, 2010, Solomon predicted a "clash of civilizations between Islam and the west," over the secession of southern Sudan. He predicted that northern Sudan would reject the secession, which would then pit "a club of non-Islamic nations" (including what he calls "Christian Kenya", "Christian Ethiopia" and Israel) against Islamic ones (including Iran).

Green Beanery

In 2004, Solomon founded Green Beanery, a non-profit online merchant specializing in organic coffee beans produced by small, independent farmers.[32] The company is located in downtown Toronto and includes a cafe where customers can sample a wide variety of coffee.[33] The profits from Green Beanery go to Probe International.