Thurston County to reuse waste gas for heating
OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON - Methane gas generated at a wastewater treatment plant in Olympia will be converted into energy to heat a new administration and education building.
A partnership of the cities of Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater, plus Thurston County, has approved a $2.6 million contract to install a cogeneration system that will supply about 11 percent of the heat and electricity for its new complex.
Officials tell The Olympian newspaper that the energy output will be 2.36 million kilowatt-hours — enough to power about 250 average-size homes.
Currently, the sewer utility simply burns off much of the methane.
The new system is expected to save the utility about $190,000 a year. It is expected to be operating in about 15 months.
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Texas utilities struggle to restore power as Harvey hampers progress
HOUSTON - Hundreds of thousands of Texans were without power along the Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Harvey left parts of the Houston area under water.
There were roughly 280,000 customers without power along the Texas's coast and in Houston and the surrounding areas on Monday, according to reported outages by the state's investor-owned utilities. Harvey, which made landfall on Friday, caused devastating flooding and knocked out power lines along its destructive path.
CenterPoint Energy reported more than 100,000 outages earlier on Monday, though that figure was down to 91,744 shortly after 1 p.m. on Monday.
The company said it was unable to access…
