Alternative Energy at Kraft Foods
Challenge
Kraft Foods had installed ten small architectural wind turbines at their Lehigh Valley plant and wanted to determine if their location was a good candidate for scaling up wind energy production. Additionally, to gain better control over their energy costs, Kraft wanted to explore the feasibility of implementing a portfolio of alternative energies, such as solar or biofuels.
Project Description
iSpring, in collaboration with Lehigh University’s Enterprise Systems Center, worked with Kraft Foods’ Lehigh Valley facility to analyze alternative energy options that might be implemented on-site. The three-month project included research into solar, wind, and biofuel technologies. Under iSpring’s guidance, project personnel analyzed the technical feasibility of the various options as well as the financial implications of their adoption. The project culminated in the creation of two decision support tools, one for wind and one for solar. To perform the analysis, each tool incorporated comprehensive weather data from national databases, performance data from specific technologies being evaluated, energy pricing data and governmental incentives for renewable energy.
Results
The project accomplished the following for Kraft Foods' Lehigh Valley plant:
- It provided them with two decision support tools that enabled plant personnel to make preliminary decisions on the feasibility of wind or solar energy for their site.
- It laid the groundwork for investigation into the use of a geothermal system for energy generation.