PER is actively screening opportunities and developing projects and sites using the following technologies:

Combustion Turbine Technology
Simple Cycle - Simple Cycle refers to a plant configuration where a combustion turbine is the only source of power generation in the plant.  Often referred to as "peakers" or a "peaking unit", a simple cycle plant is typically designed to operate with minimal start-up time during periods when electric demand is highest.

Combined Cycle - Combined Cycle refers to a plant configuration where the excess heat produced by a combustion turbine is channeled through a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) which produces steam and is subsequently processed through a steam turbine to generate power.  Combined cycle plants are highly efficient and produce very low emissions, combined cycle plants are typically designed to operate as an intermediate resource.

Combined Cycle (Cogeneration) - As described above, a combined cycle plant utilizes a combustion turbine and a steam turbine with a HRSG to produce electricity.  In a cogeneration configuration, steam produced by the HRSG is used by a local customer for purposes other than generating electricity.  Typically this is a customer with thermal energy requirements which uses the steam for heating or another industrial application.  
 
Rankine Cycle: Oil, Gas and Coal Fired Boilers - This plant design utilizes liquid, solid or gaseous fuel in a boiler, not unlike that used for home heating, to produce steam which is subsequently processed through a steam turbine to produce electricity. Power generating plants utilizing this design often operate as "base load" plants, or "super peak" plants. The former is primarily due to the low cost of fuel and the inability to turn on and off efficiently while the latter mode of operation is usually associated with older generating units that are kept operable for transmission system reliability purposes.




Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC)- IGCC is a process where solid fuel is converted to synthetic gas (syngas) and used in the Combined Cycle process as described above. An IGCC facility is unique in that in combines the advantages of a low cost fuel source with the efficiency of a Combined Cycle plant configuration. IGCC is a technology that has existed for quite some time but has yet to reach a commercial basis in the United States.  IGCC is now being considered by many to be a fundamental technology for the future of the North American power generation industry, as a way to create fuel diversity.  IGCC projects have other benefits besides power generation.  Plant configurations are being developed today to include added coal gasification capacity.  The added syngas is being produced for purposes other than power generation.  The uses for this syngas include, (i) direct injection into local pipelines, (ii) conversion to oils/fuels and (iii) conversion to chemical feed stocks.

Renewable Energy 
PER has a broad range of experience across the energy sector including the development, acquisition and management of renewable energy projects.  The renewables sector is borad based and covers a range of technological options.  PER has limited its focus in the renewables sector to the following options:

Wood Combustion - Wood or biomass conversion is accomplished when wood products are combusted in specially designed boilers.  The captured heat is converted to steam and subsequently used to make power via a steam turbine.  Due to the economics of wood gathering, these baseload facilities are typically in the 20-40 MW range.

Wind - Over the past five years wind farms have become very popular in the United States with projects ranging from 40-300 MW in size.  With the advent of large scale individual wind turbines, this technology has become advantageous for the creation of "green megawatts."  These projects typically produce power 20-30% of the year.

Geothermal - When subsurface thermal resources are available (steam and/or hot water), the potential exists for geothermal power.  In the United States these types of projects have been concentrated in the west and southwest.  Production wells are drilled and the thermal energy piped to a common generation site.  These baseload plants typically range in size from 10-70 MW.

Ethanol - Ethanol production from agricultural products has become increasingly popular given increased gasoline prices and the resulting impact on the U.S. economy.  The fermentation of corn kernels to ethanol has been demonstrated in the U.S., and today over 30 projects are under construction.  The resultant ethanol is now being blended with gasoline up to 10% by volume.  These facilities are usually sized in the range of 30-100 million gallons per year of capacity.