Top condition, price negotiable – Why the internet of things can also be the internet of big things (Power Plant Online)
[Nov. 2019] Buying a power plant online would have been inconceivable a few years back. When stroomsolutions launched its marketing concept a good two years ago, there were still a large number of sceptics. In the meantime, they have become fewer and less sceptical.
Buying a large power plant online no longer raises any eyebrows, especially as the purchase is only initiated in the global network. Given the sums involved with power plants, no one would simply click on ‘buy now’, possibly even without any right of return.
What we’re talking about here is initiating sales talks, sounding out what savings can be achieved compared with new systems, and ensuring quick availability in order to close gaps in supply. Since this usually already begins in the planning phase, it is important to have a shop window that consumers can look around in. And it works, too. The stroomsolutions website user numbers are continuously on the rise, as are requests for available power plants and components.
United States and Western Europe’s power plant clearance sale brought about by the energy transition is arousing particular interest in countries with rapid growth in demand for energy. A lot of the power plants are still very new, too, and have already been converted for operation at minimum load, are highly flexible and achieve impressive levels of efficiency (see also the following study on “Flexibility in thermal power plants”). In addition, many of them can be converted at a later stage, meaning that the transition from coal to gas to renewables can be consciously mapped out. In some cases, even training for the new team is included if the unit is still in operation and, for the time being, only registered for shutdown.
Naturally of cause, there will be no stopping the triumphant advance of renewable sources of energy. Yet, new coal-fired power plants are still being built in some parts of the world in order to ensure that the population is supplied with power at all, and to make use of local natural resources. Recycling old facilities is at least one way of using resources more consciously right now. And many of the power plants currently being made redundant in Western Europe already have flue gas cleaning technologies that some old power plants still in operation can only dream of.
By Hardy Hilliges, VPC GmbH / stroomsolutions