Capstone is enjoying a boom in demand for its microturbines and indications are that these small machines are now entering a period of widespread commercialisation.
Harza, well known in the very different world of hydro plant engineering, has ordered no less than 250 units over three years, for use in distributed generation and resource recovery. To focus on this new business it has set up an energy services company, Harza Energy LLC.
A 100-unit one-year order has been signed with oil and gas production specialist Hanover, which will use the microturbines to burn wellhead gases for electricity generation, as an alternative to flaring.
A third batch, consisting of 52 microturbines, worth about $1.5 million, has recently been ordered by Cincinnatti-based Cinergy, one of Capstone’s major distributors within North America, which intends to install the units with those clients which require immediate additions to their available capacity.
Capstone’s microturbine system has recently been approved for connection to the transmission grid by the Public Service Department of New York. The approval allows Capstone to avoid a separate certification process for each of the state’s utility companies and comes as part of the new state distributed generation standard.
