New Technologies Will Require Old Maintenance
The media have been reporting a great deal about new clean, green and sustainable means of power generation. Whether it is solar, wind, geothermal or biomass, there is a tremendous amount of effort, time and money being poured into those technologies.
What does their increasing presence mean for you as the people who will have to implement, run and maintain those technologies?
The short answer to that question is – not much! You will still have to do more with less. You will still have to perform maintenance miracles using shrinking budgets and with reduced manpower.
Two of those technologies – solar and wind, at least in their current incarnations – are only rarely finding homes at the building or facility level – they don’t lend themselves to small installations. And if they do find a home with you, the maintenance demands they pose aren’t really that major – just keep them clean and oiled and sealed.
Geothermal and biomass, on the other hand, can be more complicated, and will be more maintenance- intensive than solar and wind. Geothermal power, unless you find our self located on a tectonic fault line, will likely involve a lower-temperature binary plant with the same condensers and heat exchangers you use now – with the same maintenance issues. Biomass, simply another form of fuel, will generally pose the same maintenance issues as a coal-fired power plant would – you are just burning a different fuel.
Don’t let the “green” label deceive you. While these new technologies may help solve the twin issues of energy and environment, they will still require much the same maintenance and repairs as the old technology.
Rich Silverman
Goodway Blogging Team
Photo by Rjglewis courtesy of WIkimedia Commonsw under a Creative Commons License
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