More on Apple in Maiden NC Diesel Diesel Everywhere

In searching for the Air Permit for the 50 Bloom Coffins at the Apple North Carolina data center, I stumbled on the one and only air permit issued for the site.  There is no air permit for the Bloom coffins, just an air permit for 44 massive diesel backup generators with a capacity of 108,800 kilowatts.  These diesel backup generators could power 60,000 to 80,000 homes.

I have asked Lisa Jackson, VP of Environmental Affairs to respond.   It is interesting that Apple claims they run the data center entirely with renewable power with 40,000 kw of PV and 10,000 of Bloom Coffins for a total of 50,000 kw of intermittent generation.  Yes the Bloom Coffins have an approximate 10% downtime and the PV have 80% downtime.  The site needs 108,800 kw of standby diesel generation.  Something does not add up.  Let's call Siri, she will have the answer.  Siri is located in the data center in Maiden North Carolina and we know diesel helps keep Siri alive.

Perhaps Siri can tell us all how green the Apple is???



 Here is my email to Lisa Jackson:

Dear Ms. Jackson

I found out from the North Carolina DENR that there was no air permit for the 50 Bloom Cells.  There is however an air permit for 44 diesel standby power generators that have a total capacity of 108,800 kilowatts.  Can you please opine on why Apple is so reliant on diesel for backup power?  Can you also opine on why there is no air permit for the Bloom Fuel Cells?

Will it be possible to talk to you face to face or by phone?  I am working on this article on the actual greenness of Apple's Maiden North Carolina data center

Thanks

Lindsay Leveen The Green Machine

Apple Maiden NC Diesel Backup
sets	kw	tot kw
24	2250	54000
4	2500	10000
16	2800	44800
Total   44		108800

More on Apple in Maiden NC and Their Sulfur Waste

The story on Apple and the solid waste with sulfur in Maiden NC is getting interesting,

Another three emails I sent to Lisa Jackson former head of the US EPA and now VP of Environmental Affairs at Apple.  She cannot hide from this but what will she do???  She played an integral role in the Bloom Fuel cell project at their data center in Maiden.  She toured a NBC Today show reporter around the site.  She wrote of the performance of the fuel cells.  She opined that Apple does not tolerate toxic chemicals.  

First email

Ms. Jackson this video from NBC features you and the Bloom Fuel Cells at the end of the video.  Those are the devices with the desulfurization bed canisters.  I look forward to your reply regarding what happens with the solid waste with sulfur.

Thanks

Lindsay Leveen

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Apr 11, 2015 3:28 PM
Subject: Tech giant goes green with renewable energy - TODAY.com

Cc:

http://www.today.com/money/tech-giant-goes-green-renewable-energy-1D79574407

Second email

Ms. Jackson

To simplify.  I went to the Apple 2013 sustainability report (published in 2014).  It states 47% of the 167 million kwh of power at Maiden NC came from power generated by the Bloom Cells.  I checked the pipeline gas in NC that is connected to the Apple Maiden site and it has approximately 1 grain of sulfur per 100 cubic feet of gas.  I then did the math with a heat rate of 7.6 million BTU (HHV) per mwh (what Bloom really averages) and voila I get 827 pounds a year of sulfur in the desulfurization bed canisters.  I assume there is 40 to 1 increase in mass based on the mass of the desulfurization bed plus the mass of the steel housing when the whole canister is removed.  This implies just over 33,000 pounds of solid waste with sulfur could be being removed from the Apple site in Maiden NC each year.

Interestingly the 47% of the 167 million BTUs implies a 89.6% capacity factor for the 50 Bloom Boxes.  Bloom had fibbed to AC Transit that they would achieve a 97% capacity factor and only achieve a 81% capacity factor in West Oakland.  Bloom had fibbed to Delaware they would achieve a 100% capacity factor.  I am almost 100% certain that the capacity factor at Maiden NC will lower as the Bloom Boxes age and also the heat rate will increase.  This is based on real data provided under the freedom of information act for Delaware, AC Transit at Oakland, and Santa Clara County.

I do look forward to hearing from you regarding the solid waste with sulfur at Maiden NC.

Thanks

Lindsay Leveen

The Green Machine

Third email

Dear Ms. Jackson

The first piece you wrote about toxins in the workplace is interesting.  Surely the same applies to solid waste with sulfur.  We are not talking about a PCB facility in China.  We are talking about your company's flagship data center in North Carolina.

I look forward to your response.

Lindsay Leveen The Green Machine

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Apr 12, 2015 6:57 PM
Subject: Apple – Environmental Responsibility – Our Progress
To:
Cc:

http://www.apple.com/environment/our-progress/ 

Does Apple Hide Solid Waste With Sulfur?

I wrote an email to Ms. Lisa Jackson who heads Apple's environmental efforts.  Ms. Jackson like me has a MS in Chemical Engineering so she has no excuse and cannot plead the dumb defense.  Before joining Al Gore at Apple, she headed the US EPA for Mr. Obama and left with quite a bit of controversy for having a second email account at the EPA under the Name of Richard Windsor.  Here is the email I wrote her.


Dear Ms. Jackson

I am an award winning journalist and chemical engineer and this email is super important to the good governance of Apple.  As you ran the US EPA you are well aware of the the federal requirements for hazardous solid waste management.

Apple has contracted with Bloom Energy for 10 MW of Fuel Cells at your Maiden NC site.  This is an installation of 50 of the ES 5700 servers.  The natural gas in the area is delivered via pipelines owned by Piedmont Natural Gas and has a sulfur content of approximately 10 parts per million by volume.  The Bloom fuel cells have by Bloom's own admission desulfurization bed canisters that must remove sulfur to parts per billion to prevent poisoning of the catalysts in the fuel stack.   Bloom admitted to Breitbart (link below) to removing the desulfurization bed canisters from client sites and hauling these sulfur laden canisters elsewhere. 

http://www.breitbart.com/california/2014/11/26/bloom-energy-s-fuel-cells-have-a-sulfur-problem/

Bloom's patents reveal the use a cobalt catalyst to convert all sulfur compounds in the incoming gas to hydrogen sulfide and then react the hydrogen sulfide with zinc oxide to remove the sulfur.  The result is a canister with a desulfurization bed that has cobalt and zinc sulfide.  This implies the solid waste is hazardous.   This implies that Apple is therefore the generator of solid waste containing sulfur that is probably hazardous.  The quantity of the solid waste with sulfur could well be over 10 tons per year based on the total mass of the entire desulfurization bed canister and how many fuel cells are in operation at your Maiden NC site.

I have not been able to find permits for the solid waste with sulfur, nor manifests for the removal of the solid waste with sulfur.  It could be that Apple did permit this stream of waste and if it did please let me know.  I could be that Bloom never told Apple of this stream of waste and if this is news to Apple please let me know.  What is certain is the stream of waste that is quite large and contains sulfur compounds and it does exist and Bloom handles the waste stream by their own admission.

You should also note that NBC Bay Area Investigates did a piece on greenwashing by Bloom.  Their claimed CO2 savings are not always achieved in real operation. The link below is the video of that investigative report.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Is-Bloom-Energy-Greenwashing-the-Public-279813752.html

I have reported the sulfur waste from Bloom Fuel Cells to the US EPA for three sites.  These are AT&T sites (AT&T is Bloom's largest non utility customer), the Red Lion Delmarva Power site in Delaware (Bloom's largest site),  and AC Transit in Oakland California.  I have not yet reported the Apple Maiden NC site as I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks

Lindsay Leveen The Green Machine

www.greenexplored.com

I sent the email along to Huffman and Levine who "represent" me and noted that they had protected Al Gore in the Sulfur BLOOMDOGGLE.  I wonder is Ms. Jackson will protect Al Gore as he sits on the board of directors of Apple.  There is no doubt she is an operative, but she will have a hard time hiding the solid waste with sulfur there in Maiden North Carolina.  Hillary will announce her candidacy tomorrow.  Ms. Jackson phony email address was not on a private server but at the EPA.  I have not found any connection of the Clintons to the BLOOMDOGGLE unless of course Al Gore sold the Clintons a Bloom 200 kw server to serve the house and IT system there at 15 Old House Lane, Chappaqua, NY 10514.

Monkey Business Tesla and The SGIP in California

I reported that Tesla Motors is on the gravy train to extract lots of money from electricity rate payers in California that our disgraced CPUC doles out under the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP).  I reported that Tesla has asked for $143,603,293.76 for 83,433.53 kw of battery storage under the SGIP.  Tesla or their agent Solar City claimed they will spend a total of $262,658,673 for these fully installed power storage unit at homes, offices, stores, and even the Government.  This equals a unit installed cost of $3,148.12 per kw.

Now the zinger.  Let’s say the systems have an eight year life and let’s pretend that money has no time value to earn interest or profits.  The amortized value per year of the power storage systems is $393.51 per kw per year (equals $3,148.12 divide 8).  Let’s assume that the batteries are cycled such that 400 kwh of power are charged and discharged each year (400 cycles a year 3,200 cycles in 8 years) into the grid or taken from the grid.  This is a cost of 98 cents per kwh just to amortize the storage system without interest or profit.   Being kind let's assume the storage can be cycled 800 times a year for a total of 6,400 cycles over their life.  Even then this adds 49 cents per kwh without interest or profit. 

Simply put the idea is lunacy and only flies because the CPUC gives away so much money paid by poor and middle class ratepayers to support the gangrene idea.  I have told the CPUC that they are again not looking out for the interests of the people they are mandated to protect.

The green press and the business press are all excited that Elon Musk said he would reveal his new business.  If the business is this battery storage of grid power nonsense then we know that he is up to Monkey Business with the CPUC.  Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, Charles Coburn, and Ginger Rodgers once starred in a movie titled Monkey Business.  Elon Musk, Jerry, Brown and the full CPUC are starring in the remake.  The original version was a comedy the remake is a tragedy!

Bloom Plus Tesla = Half a Billion Dollars of Ratepayer Money

Yes folks between Bloom Energy and Tesla ratepayers for electric service in California are gifting a half billion dollars under the SGIP to these well connected crony companies for pretend green nonsense.

Actually what is even more sad is how wrong the pundits and gurus at the New York Times were who helped all this greenwashing nonsense happen.

I have previously blogged that Thomas Friedman of the New York Times was a thermodynamic neophyte in his claims that Coda and Project Better Place would dominate the automobile space.  Both are now bankrupt.  

http://www.greenexplored.com/2012/12/thomas-friedmans-battery-is-flat.html

I found an article in the NYT from five years ago where Tommy talks utter nonsense about Vinod Kholsa and KR Sridhar, the two thermodynamic jokers who defrauded America.  Vinod is well known for his thermodynamic failures post the Tommy by the Who article.  Yes the same Vinod, Friedman claimed in March 2010 was a guru is being sued by the State of Mississippi for the KIOR for FRAUD.  KR Sridhar is the CEO of Bloomdoggle Energy.

This article Tommy wrote in March 2010 is linked below.  He called it "Dreaming The Possible Dream".  It should now be titled "The Gangrene Nightmare".

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/opinion/07friedman.html

The utter nonsense of making cement from CO2 and sea water turned out to be a thermodynamic bust.  The company Calera took money from Peabody Coal and the US DOE and yielded nothing.  The thermodynamic neophyte from Bechtel, Ian Copland, was part of the gangrene hoax.  The biggest hucksters though are Thomas Friedman and his editors at the Times.   They published pure nonsense.   Remember Mathew Wald another reporter from the Times hyped Kior stock.

http://www.greenexplored.com/2012/11/new-york-times-article-makes-kior-stock.html

I suggest that Wald and Friedman both be added to the suit Mississippi has brought against Khosla and his cronies.  Wald and Friedman were simply too ill informed to write about energy and should cover the weather where they are allowed to be completely wrong most of the time.  The New York Times says "all the news that is fit to print".  They should now say "all the Gorey greenwashing that fits our political agenda".

From Gangrene Scandals To Scandium

The Green Machine is trying to think if he was King of Thermo for a day what would he do to lower Greenhouse Gas emissions?   The best bet would probably to have a global sleep in and simply turn off all machines, cars, lights, TVs and just hide under the covers.  That would be a solution for a day but it would not solve long term needs.

In 2003, I contemplated technologies that I thought would help lower greenhouse gas emissions.  LEDs, LCD TVs and monitors, hybrid cars, electric bicycles, solar photo voltaic, wind, hydro, combined cycle gas fired generation, small nuclear reactors, and lighter stronger materials for building things.   In 2003 I rejected hydrogen and rejected bio fuels as simply being wasteful.    Fast forward to 2015, and the great hopes I had in 2003 are still pretty much spot on.  I still do not believe in Biofuels and I still think the hydrogen highway is hype.

As thermo king for a day my directive to scientists would be to find lighter, stronger, and affordable materials to build cars, trucks, buses, airplanes, and ships out of.   I also would direct material scientists to invent improved battery chemistry over lithium ion.  These two avenues of research will yield great improvement in reducing our global carbon footprint. 

The lighter materials might well be alloys of titanium, aluminum, and maybe scandium.  Yes scandium that is now wasted in Bloom fuel cells could be an important ingredient in alloys with aluminum to yield strong, hard, and weldable metals that replace heavier metals now used in transportation.  I have been told scandium can also play a role in battery chemistry.  I am no expert on scandium but the little I have read is that it could play a role in a greener future.

Scandium is a rare earth metal with atomic number 21.  Russia and Ukraine are major producers of this metal that is hardly used presently.   That will change as there are other scandium deposits around the globe.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandium

Won’t it be nice if we can move from Scandals to Scandium.   Sammy Sosa wore number 21.  So did Dominique Wilkins, Roger Clemens, Roberto Clemente, and Deion Sanders.  I think we should invest to bring element 21 into the big leagues.

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201206/top-21-athletes-wear-no-21#1

Bloom’s Error – Picking IKEA As A Customer

I knew that someday Bloom would find a customer that actually is green.  They and their Kleiner Perkins connected companies like Apple and Google are far from green and the BLOOMDOGGLING to extract ratepayer and taxpayer money served these companies and Bloom Energy very well.

The mistake Bloom made was to find a customer that actually wants to do good for the world.  IKEA is such a customer.  IKEA announced earlier this week they will purchase biogas for a 300 kw Bloom Fuel Cell at the large IKEA store in Emeryville California.  This is a first of a kind project for IKEA that is noted for their sustainability program and their commitment to green energy.  

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150325005142/en/IKEA-Expand-Renewable-Energy-Portfolio-Fuel-Cells#.VRR4qPnF8k1

Bloom fed IKEA the greenwashed data on 1,304 tons of avoided CO2 per year with a 95% total performance factor.   I contacted Mr. Joseph Roth at IKEA and sent him the real data on the reliability of the Bloom Coffins as well as the real data on the actual grid emissions.  Mr. Roth forwarded my emails internally at IKEA.  I know this because he called me this morning to speak with me.  He is now well aware that Bloom Coffins create a solid waste stream with sulfur and that too will be investigated by IKEA.  I told him not to be surprised if IKEA’s CO2 savings are only half of what Bloom promised and that half a ton of solid waste with sulfur is generated at the Emeryville store.

He assured me that IKEA takes sustainability seriously and they will keep a very close eye on what is actually achieved by the Bloom system at their Emeryville site.  I thanked him for the call and thanked him for IKEA actually wanting to be sustainable and green.  If only the myriad other major corporations that have Bloom Coffins had the same honest ecological interest as IKEA, the BLOOMDOGGLE might have ended years ago.  Alas Al Gore in on the board at Apple, and Kleiner Perkins pulls many strings at Google and EBay.   These gangrene companies are just happy to take handouts from ratepayers and taxpayers to lower their energy bills without any desire to lower their CO2 footprint or deal with the proper handling of potentially hazardous solid waste with sulfur.

The BLOOMDOGGLE in California is massive.  From the spreadsheet the CPUC sent me a couple days ago on Tesla and the SGIP, I extracted how much Bloom Energy has grabbed of the SGIP.  They requested $575,673,133 of SGIP money.  They stand to receive $404,046,545 from the SGIP all of which (every last cent) comes directly from ratepayers. 

Bloom and their friends in government and American industry have greenwashed galore like Gore.  Luckily IKEA stands out as a shining green star in the wasteland of the BLOOMDOGGLE. IKEA stands for It's Kleen Energy Afterall.