Owners of coal-fired power plants are turning ever more to modern control and automation solutions in an effort to improve boilers, burners and overall plant processes. Sean Ottewell reports. The use of 3D model reviews are essential throughout the life-cycle of a project. They can be used to determine project milestones and show progress to the client for billing. As processes get more and more extreme in temperature and pressure, it is time to have a closer look at radar behaviour in those critical applications and the solutions available on the market that overcome the obstacles. Uwe Wagner and Rob Vermeulen report. The market for continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) to measure pollutants discharged from stacks will rise to $583 million/yr in 2009. The renewable energy market worldwide will nearly double in size from its 2005 levels by 2008 according to Renewable Energy World Markets, a newly released report from the McIlvaine Company. Every control loop designed to control the mass flow rates of fluids, gases or bulk solids can only be as good as the design and dimensioning of the valve implemented. Owens Corning announced at the European Wind Energy Conference and Exhibition in Athens, Greece, a breakthrough single-end roving and knitted fabric, Windstrand, which will allow the wind energy market to take another step forward in competing successfully against other alternative energy sources by reducing the cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh). In March 2004, a group of European wind energy companies/operators visited the Enertrag wind farm in Germany where 126 SKF WindCon systems (on-line condition monitoring) will be installed. This is the world’s biggest on-line condition monitoring installation in the wind industry. The visitors saw the SKF system in operation and got very positive feedback from the German customer. The reality is that any form of energy generation will create some additional greenhouse gases and will add some amount of pollution or negative environmental impact. The challenge is to make the best energy choices with a clear understanding of the positive and negative aspects of each option. Danfoss Silicon Power has introduced the next generation of power modules with screw connected power terminals for a power range from 10 to 90kW. The SNAIL – a tidal energy device developed by The Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen, Scotland – has been undergoing extensive trials in very high currents off Orkney for the past three weeks. The majority of today’s power supplies, targeting near unity power factor, employ active power factor correction (PFC) in the ac/dc front end. The PFC section, or ac/dc stage, boosts the input ac line voltage to a level, above the maximum ac line peak voltage, usually to the level of 385Vdc.