My support to my brilliant NREL colleague Zhiwen Ma in this report was absolutely minimal. Nonetheless, I'm honored and proud to be associated with it....
--Read the report here =>https://lnkd.in/eN5Nwh2T <=
Zhiwen's research found that the New York Power Authority (NYPA), which is responsible for maintaining minimum water depths for navigation (and so for dredging sediment build-up) in New York's Cayuga-Seneca, Champlain, Erie and Oswego Canals, can turn an annual $25 million expense into a $6 million profit while helping combat climate change! NYPA currently pays millions annually to dispose of what they've always viewed as just junk dredged dirt. But this "dirt" apparently has extraordinary heat-energy absorption and retention properties, so can be used like enormous heat batteries to store energy for later use.
"The results show that the disposal of the dredged material costs almost $25,474,925 yearly which results in a negative NPV of $-240,149,939 over 30 years. These numbers emphasis the need to utilize the dredged material to reduce the economic burdens caused by the disposal of these materials. For instance, the literature proposes the use of such material in the concrete industry; such application will generate an annual cash flow of $5,968,652 which results in a NPV of $56,265,974 over 30 years."
This is one of the reasons why National Renewable Energy Laboratory is such an amazing place to work.