CHATSWORTH, Calif., June 10, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST), the world’s leading clean technology manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, proudly announced today that the Masonic Village site in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania has surpassed 100,000 hours of operation.
Masonic Village is a sprawling continuing-care retirement community, children’s home, and community service organization that opened in 1910. Today, the 1,400-acre complex serves more than 1,700 residents. For decades, the complex was driven by a coal-fired plant that burned more than 5,000 tons of coal each year. Even after the campus decommissioned the generators in the 1950s and switched to power from the local utility, it continued to use coal to fuel two 400-horsepower boilers and one 25-horsepower boiler. The coal-driven system was an emission hazard and required two people to manually operate and maintain it around the clock for more than 50 years.
In 2002, officials at Masonic Village moved to a next generation technology for their heating and electric needs by installing low-emission Capstone microturbines that produce a combined 390kW of electricity, equal to powering 205 homes. The system produces 10% of their electricity demand, 100% of the hot water needs during shoulder and summer months, and has a demonstrated system efficiency of up to 85%. When compared to the original coal-fired plant Masonic Village used for more than 90 years, the Capstone installation has drastically reduced carbon emissions an astounding 31,511 tons in nine years. The plant is the equivalent of removing 7,062 cars from the road or planting 11,212 acres of forest.
“It’s not just the fact that we’re generating electricity,” Jeff Gromis, Facilities Engineer, said. “We’re also using the exhaust to preheat our domestic hot water for the core areas of the campus, which is what really makes the payback work. When you are talking 80-85% efficiency, that’s a pretty impressive number.”
On May 23, 2014 Microturbine Unit #1 onsite was the first unit at Masonic Village and one of the first in the E-Finity fleet to reach 100,000 operating hours. This unit, along with the other five in the installation, to date, has reduced greenhouse gas emission by 3,564 tons per year or approximately 42,800 tons total since installation, which is equal to removing 8,000 cars from the road and eliminating 4.3 million gallons of gasoline. In total, Masonic Village has generated enough energy onsite to power an equivalent of 5,300 homes. Masonic Village, a pioneer of Capstone’s jet engine technology, will be awarded a Centennial Award commemorating over half a million combined microturbine run hours.
“We are proud to have Masonic Village surpass half a million total hours of operation. Capstone microturbines are not only efficient, but also extremely reliable machines,” said Jim Crouse, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “As more businesses continue to strive for energy independence, Capstone will be ready to serve their needs with our dependable clean and green microturbines.”
About Capstone Turbine Corporation
Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST) is the world’s leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems and was the first to market commercially viable microturbine energy products. Capstone Turbine has shipped approximately 7,000 Capstone Microturbine systems to customers worldwide. These award-winning systems have logged millions of documented runtime operating hours. Capstone Turbine is a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Combined Heat and Power Partnership, which is committed to improving the efficiency of the nation’s energy infrastructure and reducing emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. A UL-Certified ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certified company, Capstone is headquartered in the Los Angeles area with sales and/or service centers in the New York Metro Area, United Kingdom, Mexico City, Shanghai and Singapore.
