To save on electricity, says David Moard, President of Powerhouse Energy, a California supplier of distributed generation energy technology, Alloy Processing contracted with his company last April to install four linked, 60-kilowatt natural gas-fired microturbines. Now, in addition to supplying power for the entire plant, the microturbines also heat the solution in about half the tanks. According to Moard, Alloy Processing takes the waste heat of the microturbines and uses that to generate hot water, which in turn heats the anodizing solution to the necessary temperature. As a result, says Leibl, the company has cut its electric bill by about 80 percent. The total cost of the system, says Leibl, was about $550,000-one third of which was rebated to Alloy Processing from the state through a program encouraging companies to use alternative means of power. With the savings the company is seeing, Leibl says Alloy Processing is expecting an 18-month payback.

Microturbines can be especially cost-effective for small facilities such as apartment buildings, business parks, and hotels. For example, the Holiday Inn in Pico Rivera, CA has more than 350 rooms and does all its own laundry. This makes for a hefty electric bill each month, says Miguel Modrano, the hotel's chief engineer. That's why the Holiday Inn had Simmax Energy install a natural gas-powered 80-kilowatt microturbine. Simmax owns the microturbine-the hotel just pays for the power Simmax produces each month, says Timothy Bristol, general manager of the hotel.

According to Modrano, the microturbine produces about one quarter of the hotel's electricity and four-fifths of its hot water. As a result, he says, the hotel does not have to run its hot water boilers as hard. What's more, says Bristol, the heat it buys from Simmex is cheaper than the price for natural gas from a public utility. In total, the microturbine system lops about 35 percent off the hotel's combined electricity and gas expenses, he says.

Microturbines can use as fuel energy sources that would otherwise be wasted, such as methane emitted from locations like public landfills. When brownouts hit California in 2000, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) had to rededicate itself to finding alternative means of power. According to LADWP spokesman Randy Howard, LADWP has "one of the largest green power programs in the nation," with about 43,000 paying customers. "Under the Green Power for a Green LA program, customers can choose to pay an additional 3 cents per kilowatt-hour for renewable energy," he says. 

Late in 2000, LADWP installed 50 microturbines on the Lopez Canyon landfill. The 30-kilowatt microturbines were linked together to leverage the cumulative power of the devices in one power array. It was, at the time, the largest deployment of microturbines in the world.

Previously, the methane gas generated by the trash in the landfill had been extracted and flared. The flaring, and its attendant pollution, were necessary to prevent a gas buildup and explosion near adjacent populated areas, according to Robert Blue, the LADWP supervisor who oversaw the microturbines' installation. LADWP tapped into the existing piping, he explains, so the methane could be diverted into gas compressors that feed the microturbines.

Blue says the system-including the microturbines, the gas handling system, additional electrical infrastructure, a new high voltage electric line, and a substation-cost a total of about $4 million. . Indeed, says Howard, "LADWP entered the project knowing the capital cost of development was higher than traditional generation." He adds that LADWP is required by state law to spend 2.85 percent of its gross revenue every year-about $60 million-on "public benefit programs" such as new and renewable energy technologies. The microturbine installation "fit the definition for public benefit spending by reducing emission from flaring, generating electricity from a renewable fuel, and developing a new technology," Howard says.

Blue says the solution "eliminates about 10,000 pounds of oxides of nitrogen a year-that is equivalent to the emissions of about 500 cars for the same period-and produces about 1.5 megawatts of electricity." Howard adds that though the capital costs were substantial, the ongoing savings are also appreciable. "At current prices," he says, "the cost of fuel from the landfill is one tenth that of natural gas."

Other uses of microturbines are also emerging. A brick manufacturer in California is using the waste heat from its microturbines to heat its kilns. An injection molding manufacturer in New York is doing the same thing to air condition its plant. And a pasta maker outside Rome, Italy, dries its pasta with the exhaust from microturbines.

The next step for manufacturers, says EPRI's Herman, is to develop a more standardized approach to installation of multiple microturbines. Look for this, he says, and the evolution of larger microturbines in the next five to 10 years-by which time these potent machines may well spin their way into a critical role in the energy picture.