Providing reliable energy is like an equation.
Begin with energy resources and add a growing consumer demand for power. The solution must include balancing the need for a clean environment, and Tampa Electric is finding the answers.
Through initiatives, such as a renewable energy program, recycling byproducts, state-of-the-art pollution control equipment, and diversifying the fuel mix, the company is making strides to brighten the air quality of West Central Florida.
Tampa Electric customers can directly support the environment with Renewable Energy.
This environmental program invests in solar power and biomass (plant clippings resembling mulch), which offsets the use of coal to generate electricity. Residential and business customers sign up online by purchasing blocks in increments of $5 per month, which are added to the monthly electric bill. Renewable Energy invests the money to support these renewable energy sources and in research and development of other cleaner energy sources.
Renewable Energy recently made news for its recycling program in an unlikely place: the Hillsborough Heights Landfill. Tampa Electric partnered with several government agencies and corporations to demonstrate a microturbine, which produces electricity using landfill gas as fuel. This unique technology produces enough electricity to power over 13 homes, using a fuel source that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere.
"We are turning landfill gas into a source of clean, renewable power. Noxious greenhouse gases from landfills are usually just burned off, but Tampa Electric is now piping those gases into a new technology microturbine,” said Joe Cascio, who heads Tampa Electric’s Renewable Energy program.
Tampa Electric is aggressively minimizing power plant pollution while maximizing reuse of energy byproducts. Flue gas desulfurization (scrubber) systems are reducing sulfur dioxide emissions by 95 percent in the four units of Big Bend Power Station. During the scrubbing process, the coal combustion gases are sprayed with a mixture of water and limestone to form a recyclable byproduct, gypsum, which is used to manufacture wallboard. Tampa Electric recycles other byproducts from coal combustion for use locally in industries such as cement and concrete for construction, roofing shingles, or grit blasting material.
Sulfuric acid, a byproduct from Polk Power Station, is used to help purify water. Polk Power Station is among the nation’s cleanest, most efficient power plants.
“ Energy byproducts are recycled and used as raw materials in the manufacture of better, stronger construction products and to make clean water for all of us to use,” said Elaine Farrington, account manager for Tampa Electric’s combustion byproducts. “The alternative, to put this material in a landfill, is wasteful. ”
Tampa Electric is always looking at new solutions, including its environmental programs. It ’s all part of the energy equation.
Visit tampaelectric.com and select “Environmental” to learn more about Renewable Energy or for information on byproducts recycling.
