In Utah, Hydrogen & Massive Salt Dome Are Winning The West For Renewable Energy

Remember the excitement about hydrogen early this century? The lightest element on the periodic table was touted as a cure-all for energy needs in everything from portable devices to high rises.

Mike Ducker remembers. He was an engineer for the U.S. Department of Energy at the time, and part of his job was to evaluate the potential of energy solutions such as hydrogen.

Ducker saw hydrogen’s potential in generating energy—but he also saw the cold, hard numbers. In the early 2000s, hydrogen was too expensive to be practical as a power generation fuel. There was no overabundance of excess renewable electricity that could be used to create renewable hydrogen. It had little hope of gaining traction without a number of improvements to make it more cost-effective, and power storage was not yet a high priority for utilities and governmental leaders.

“There was a lot of buzz, but clearly that fizzled out,” Ducker says. “Fifteen years later, the dynamics are fundamentally different. Just in the past year, there’s been overwhelming interest in storing renewable power, particularly in the western United States where curtailment of renewable power generation is now a routine occurrence.”

Last December, Ducker and his family were living in Pittsburgh, where he was senior director of New Product Solutions & Operations for Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS), part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group.

One day, he got a call from MHPS Americas president and CEO Paul Browning: Things were moving on the hydrogen front. California was aggressively pushing to decarbonize its energy supply, and MHPS, in partnership with Utah-based Magnum Development, was to play a key role in developing a hydrogen-based renewable energy storage complex that could enable continued decarbonization of the West. The project, known as Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES), will be the first utility-scale renewable hydrogen creation, storage and transmission project.

“I would not move my entire family 2,000 miles across the country if I didn’t truly believe this has the potential to do what we hoped for [with hydrogen] 15 years ago.”

Mike Ducker

ACES needed a knowledgeable leader who could take hydrogen storage into the mainstream. Are you interested? Browning asked Ducker. The answer came quickly.

“Within four weeks, we had our bags packed and we set off across the country with our two young children and puppy from Pittsburgh to Salt Lake City,” says Ducker, who became the new vice president, Renewable Fuels & Western Region, for MHPS. “I would not move my entire family 2,000 miles across the country if I didn’t truly believe this is the right timing and has the potential to do what we hoped for [with hydrogen] 15 years ago.”

A Salt Dome Solution

The three biggest challenges in using hydrogen to store clean energy are converting renewable electricity to hydrogen affordably, storing large amounts of hydrogen for long periods of time at low cost and converting the hydrogen back to electricity at low cost and high efficiency.

Ducker knew that his colleagues at MHPS had a development program to use hydrogen as a fuel in their largest and most efficient gas turbine. He also knew that the electrolysis products to convert electricity to hydrogen existed and could be cost-reduced through improved economies of scale.

Hydrogen storage at substantial and affordable scale, however, had been a real barrier.

Enter the salt dome beneath Delta, Utah. Salt domes are underground salt formations, huge saline globes that intrude into other strata of the earth. Given salt’s impermeability, they can be hollowed out and used as underground storage for liquid and gas fuels.

Creating a storage cavern at Delta involves a sophisticated subterranean engineering process.

A large customer of MHPS recognized that the Delta dome was a viable candidate for hydrogen storage in the western U.S. and gave Browning the contact information of the Magnum development team. Browning discussed this with Dave Hunt, MHPS senior vice president for North America, who earlier in his career had worked in the hydrogen industry. A “light bulb went off at MHPS,” says Ducker, “and Hunt worked quickly, laying out the details of the hydrogen strategy and creating the partnership with Magnum.”

Now, MHPS and Magnum are co-developing the Delta salt dome for hydrogen storage.

Creating a storage cavern at Delta involves a sophisticated subterranean engineering process. Water is injected into a dome, creating a brine solution that is then pumped out. The resulting caverns are cylindrical and typically between 150 and 300 feet in diameter and 1,000 and 1,500 feet deep. A single cavern can contain enough pressurized hydrogen to produce 150,000 megawatt hours of energy. You would need 40,000 shipping containers of lithium-ion batteries for the same megawatt hours.

This kind of underground hydrogen storage is a proven technology. In Texas, salt caverns have been used to store hydrogen produced from natural gas since the 1980s. However, ACES will represent the first utility-scale implementation of renewable hydrogen for energy storage, industrial and transportation applications.

The huge salt dome in Delta could potentially house as many as 100 storage caverns.

Hydrogen In The Bigger Picture

The significance of ACES stems from the fact that an increasing percentage of renewable energy goes to waste for lack of an adequate storage solution. While battery storage has become increasingly affordable for short durations of time (a few hours), storage is also needed on a seasonal basis in the American West. In the spring, the combination of lower temperatures, copious sunlight, strong winds and snowmelt leads to large energy surpluses that go unused—or “curtailed,” in industry parlance—to the tune of hundreds of thousands of megawatt hours.

Hydrogen could go from being wishful thinking to an essential part of California’s push to reach 100 percent zero-carbon electricity.

In the near future, that energy will generate hydrogen through electrolysis. The resulting hydrogen will be stored in the ACES salt cavern and then tapped in periods of higher energy demand. “One of our caverns has the capacity to store the entire state of California’s monthly curtailed energy,” Ducker says.

Customers are investing in hydrogen-capable technology. For example, Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) will retire its coal units at the Intermountain Power Plant (IPP) in 2025. They will replace them with MHPS’s highly efficient gas turbine combined cycle technology, which will initially be capable of utilizing 30% renewable hydrogen as a clean energy fuel and will reach 100% renewable hydrogen capability by 2045. This plant will supply stored renewable power to the Los Angeles basin and other power users throughout California and Utah.

In just a few years, hydrogen could go from being wishful thinking to an essential part of California’s push to reach 100% zero-carbon electricity by 2045.

“If state governments and utilities are going to achieve aggressive decarbonization targets in the coming years, long-duration renewable power storage using hydrogen has to be part of the answer,” Ducker says. “This is truly a change in power.”

Read the original article here.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. if you are looking for a company that provides reliable managed IT services that's easy on the budget.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Payment Protection & Stimulus Programs Are Being Used By Scammers

Just about everyone in the country has been negatively impacted by the pandemic.

That is why the government is sending relief via the Payment Protection Program, the stimulus program, and other programs.

These programs are aimed directly at small and medium sized businesses to help keep them afloat until life can get back to normal.

Unfortunately, the world's hackers, scammers and phishers never let an opportunity go to waste, and they're getting in on the action.

According to IBM's X-Force, multiple spam campaigns are currently ongoing, with the scammers convincingly impersonating the US Small Business Administration, promising government relief fund to struggling businesses. The program itself actually exists and is 100 percent legitimate, but of course, the emails sent out by these scam groups simply offer a convincing spoof of the actual program.

Here's how it works:

The victim gets an email that, by all appearances, comes from the Federal Government. It outlines what the program does and indicates that a business owner who clicks the embedded link is just a few minutes away from being able to secure the financial aid his company needs.

To get the help, all you have to do is follow the link, enter your online banking login credentials, and let the government wire you some badly needed funds. Except of course, no funds are ever forthcoming. All the scammers wanted was a way into your online accounts so they could drain them dry.

In fact, if you enter your login credentials, you'll get an error message stating that there was a problem and that you must have entered your user name and password incorrectly. In the meanwhile, of course, the login information you just entered has already been sent to the owners of the webpage to use as they set fit.

It's a pity that the hackers and scammers have no shame, and that even in the face of a global pandemic, we have to deal with them in addition to the stress and chaos going on all around us. . Given that there's no end in sight where the pandemic is concerned, this is going to be an ongoing problem. Stay on your guard.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. and let our team of IT experts set up the most effective cybersecurity measures against the most common online threats.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Governemt & Small Businesses Must Prioritize Cybersecurity

Most of your everyday interactions are dominated by Fortune 1000s. However, small businesses continue to be the foundation of the U.S. economy. The 30 million small businesses that are operating in the country employ almost 50% of the overall workforce, as per the Small Businesses Administration. However, these same businesses have started to fall prey to cybercriminals at an increasing rate. This trend is putting the country’s economy at risk. As bigger organizations invest heavily on cybersecurity, hackers, fraudsters, and cybercriminals have started to shift their focus on small businesses.

Improved Cybersecurity Can Protect Economy

Malicious cyber activities cost the U.S. economy between $57 billion and $109 billion every year. These figures are expected to grow as the economy starts to include all of the losses incurred by small businesses from cybercrime.

As economists highlight the possibility of recession, it is crucial for all of society to assist small businesses from becoming a contributing factor. Here are few things that need to be done.

Government supported tax incentives – the government is already trying to secure our borders, financial system and air travel. Now, it needs to help in securing the digital environments of all those who are unable to do so on their own. A good place to start is to provide tax incentives to encourage innovation as well as to help small businesses realize the importance of network security. Incentives are an effective way of producing results without having to implement regulations and not having to force firms to react. In many instances, the government has leveraged tax deductions and rebates to encourage certain behaviors that are unlikely to be seen otherwise, just like with electric vehicles and solar power.

Lower Cyber Insurance Premium – small businesses can benefit from having cyber insurance if the event of a cyberattack since the damages the result from it are generally excluded from general liability policies. If small businesses do not have coverage, they will have no choice but to deal with ransoms, data loss, damages, as well as other liabilities. But, several small firms are priced out of cyber insurance market these days. Aside from that, the policies don’t cover the main attack vector, which is email phishing. If making insurance widely available is in the horizon, there is a need to request assistance from the federal and state government through tax deductions and grants. This is a small price to pay when compared to how the economy will suffer if small businesses continue to fall victim to cyberattacks.

Improved organizational awareness -  small businesses also have the responsibility to raise awareness in their company and to improve their defenses. A study revealed that less than 20% of small businesses said they were confident in their cybersecurity and those that had a well defined cybersecurity strategy didn’t reach 50%. Performing a third party security evaluation that will identify vulnerabilities is one affordable yet crucial step to take. Once the weaknesses have been determined, a plan can be made on how to deal with these weaknesses and mitigate possible losses in case a cyberattack happens.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. if you need help in setting up the most effective cybersecurity measures to secure your business against the most common online threats.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

How To Manage Your Remote Employees

Companies have asked their staff to work remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic. Although nearly a quarter of the workforce of the United States already work from home, part-time, the new regulations have left employees as well as their managers, working out of the typical office setting and separate from one another for the very first time.

Common Challenges When Working From Home

Insufficient face to face supervision – remote workers and managers both complain about the lack of face to face interaction, which could affect productivity, communication, and availability of managerial support.

Insufficient access to information – new remote workers are commonly shocked by the additional effort and time required to find information from coworkers.

Social isolation – when it comes to remote work, one of the most common complains is loneliness. Working from home for a long time could cause remote workers to feel less “belonging” to their company, which could prompt them to leave the organization.

Distractions at home – there are many distractions that can hinder efficient and productive remote work. Employers must encourage remote workers to have a dedicated workspace and sufficient child care before letting them work from home.

How Can Managers Support Remote Employees?

Create a structured check-ins everyday – remote managers should create a daily call with their remote employee, which could be in the form of one on one calls, in case your employees work more independently from one another, or a team call, in case their work is more collaborative.

Provide different options for technology – email isn’t enough. Remote workers must make the most out of the available technology, like video conferencing, that provides participants a lot of the visual cues that they would have if they were facing each other. There are instances when quick collaboration is more crucial than visual detail. Tools like Zoom and Slack can be used for less formal, less formal, and time sensitive communication.

Create rules of engagement – remote work becomes more satisfying and efficient when managers set some expectations when it comes to the means, frequency, as well as the ideal timing of the communication for their remote workers. Let your remote workers know when is the best time and what is the best way to reach you during the workday. Also, watch out for communication among remote workers to make sure that they are sharing information as required.

Offer opportunities for remote social interaction – managers must structure ways for workers to interact socially while they work from home Myrtle Beach. This holds true for each remote worker but especially for those who have been transitioned out of the office abruptly.

Offer emotional support and encouragement – particularly in the aspect of an instant shift to remote work, it’s crucial for managers to acknowledge the stress, listen to the concerns and anxieties of their employees, as well as learn how to empathize with their struggles. In case an employee who is new to remote working is struggling but is not communicating anxiety and stress, you should ask them how they are doing. A simple question of how the work from home situation is working out for them can provide you with the crucial information that you may not otherwise hear. When you ask the question, don’t forget to listen carefully to your worker’s response.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. and let our team help you set up the appropriate online security measures for your remote workers.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Huge Increase In Phishing And Malware Attacks Using Coronavirus

Around the world, hundreds of millions of people are terrified of the current pandemic that's raging. Most of those are currently self-quarantining at home and limiting their social contacts. Everyone is hungry for news and information.

Sadly, hackers, scammers and other assorted criminals have wasted no time preying on this massive captive audience.

According to data collected by Proofpoint, there has been a massive surge in Coronavirus-themed phishing and malware attacks. In fact, these kinds of attacks now dominate the threat landscape and are likely to continue to do so until the end of the crisis.

A representative from another security company, Trustwave, is also tracking the surge in these types of attacks.

Trustwave had this to say about the trend:

"Cyber criminals, proving beyond doubt they are completely devoid of morals, have ramped up their activities, unashamedly using all manner of coronavirus lures to trick people. We are now seeing dozens of different email campaigns per day."

To be sure, some of the campaigns being launched are more sophisticated than others. Some do little more than attempt to persuade a potential victim to donate bitcoin to a phony fund.

Others are a good deal more subtle, and will pretend to be from respected groups like the World Health Organization, either promising information or asking for donations during this critical time. Naturally, anyone who attempts to access the promised information or help out will wind up with one form of malware or another installed on their system and not get the information they were promised.

These facts underscore an important point. As desperate as everyone is for information, it's more important than ever to keep security at the forefront of our minds. No matter how temping a lure might be presented to you, refrain from clicking on links or opening files from untrusted sources.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now for more information as to how you can make sure that your network, gadgets, and devices are secure from cybercriminals and all other online threats.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Basic Network Security Tips For Small Businesses

If you believe that your company is at a low risk of experiencing cyberattacks just because it’s too small to be noticed by cybercriminals, then now is the time to change your perspective when it comes to network security. Semantec’s 2016 threat data revealed that about 43% of all cyberattacks involved small businesses. It’s a massive 25% increase from the 18%, recorded back in 2011. Nowadays, one out of 40 small businesses carefully select their victims by focusing on easy targets.

Make sure that your data of your small business stays secure using the basic network security tips.

Educate Your Staff

Human error is one of the major threats that small businesses face. This may include blunders like leaving confidential accounts open on computers that are shared, failing to change passwords on a regular basis, downloading infected files accidentally, and giving out important details through phishing scams.

You need to educate your workers about cybersecurity. This can help you mitigate the risk to your network. Teach them how they can identify signs of a phishing scam and what needs to be done in case they become a victim. Additionally, don’t forget to discuss why software updates are essential and how to update personal and business devices.

Be sure that you’ve set up computer security policies and that your workers understand these policies. These should include rules about network and device access, frequency of changing passwords, best file sharing practices, security application rules, reporting process on stolen or lost devices, and many more.

Update The Software

An outdated software is a threat that cybercriminals can exploit. Whether it’s a financial software, a CMS, operating systems, or anti-virus programs, you have to concentrate in updating all your software. Hackers like older software because they know exactly where the loopholes are. By updating your software, the security vulnerabilities are patched up and the functionality is improved to protect companies against malware, viruses, as well as other types of hacking.

Protect Your WiFi

The Wi-Fi network of your company could serve as an entry point for cybercriminals. But there are some steps you could take to make sure that your internet connection is secured.

All the data that will pass through your network should be encrypted and you should use a firewall, too. The router must be password protected and employees should be the only ones who should have access to it. You must consider concealing your network so others cannot try to access. You can do this by setting up the router so it won’t broadcast the name of your network.

Use A VPN

Always use a virtual private network or VPN. It adds an additional layer of security when you are browsing the web. This holds true when you’re trying to access your files using unsecured or public networks. VPN providers will channel your data first through the services and then mask the IP address and then encrypt your data so that your browsing history and passwords are kept protected from cybercriminals.

Use Two-Factor Authentication

If possible, use two factor authentication all the time. Cloud databases are almost always hijacked every time the users fail to switch on authentication or if they have left the outdated versions exposed. You need to take the vulnerabilities of cloud infrastructure as a serious threat. You should set safe practices in place when you are using or trying to access cloud services. Never pass the responsibility involving security to your cloud service.

Cybersecurity remains a huge problem for companies of all sizes. However, taking the needed precautions will significantly reduce the risk of becoming the next victim of cyber criminals.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. if you need the help of IT professionals in securing your network especially these days when cybercriminals are lurking everywhere just waiting to exploit any vulnerability they could find.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

What Are The Different Types Of Network Security?

Cybercrime is a fast growing form of criminal activity. The global cost of addressing the damage caused by these illegal activities will reach around $6 trillion by 2021, which is twice the cost of the damage back in 2015. Some reports said that the average cost of cyberattacks is at least $1 million and this is expected to continue to increase.

Making sure that the best network security is provided is one of the top priorities of a managed service provider. However, cyberattackers and hackers are devious and persistent, which means you have to leverage network security tools proactively to create and maintain an efficient line of defence.

Because of this, it’s crucial for MSPs to help clients understand the necessity and importance of keeping the best practices when it comes to network security. Below is a list of some important things you need to learn regarding the different kinds of network security tools. The latest attacks against managed service providers have emphasized the need for a robust network security so when you are already familiar with its basics then you can consider this as a refresher course that can help you explain these topics to your clients.

Types of Network Security

Network security are the countermeasures set in place to protect the network as well as the data that are stored on or perhaps just going through it. Network security protects the network from hacking attempts, employee negligence, and cyberattacks. The three network security components are software, hardware, as well as cloud services.

Different Types of Network Security Tools and Devices

There are different kinds of network security tools that you can add to your set of services.

Access Control

Access control is about controlling which users will have access to the sensitive parts of the network. This can help restrict access to the network to recognized devices and users only.

Anti-virus and Anti-malware Software

An anti-virus software would monitor the network traffic in real time for threats like malware, scan all the activity logs for indications of suspicious activities or long term patterns, and provide threat remediation abilities.

Application Security

Application security refers to the mix of software, hardware, and excellent practices that will monitor issues and then close the gaps in the security coverage.

Behavioral Analytics

Behavioral analytics software is made to determine common indicators of unusual behaviour, which could be an indication of a security breach.

Data Loss Prevention

Data loss prevention technologies can prevent the employees of a company from sharing important company details or sensitive data outside the network.

Distributed Denial of Service Prevention

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) or attacks are very common. DDoS prevention tools will scrub incoming traffic to get rid of nonlegitimate traffic that can threaten your network and may be comprised of a hardware appliance that functions by filtering out traffic before it gets to your firewalls.

Email Security

Email is an essential factor you need to take into account when you are implementing your network security tools. Various threat vectors such as phishing, suspicious links, and malware could be linked to or added into emails. An email security software functions by filtering out incoming threats and could be configured to stop outgoing messages from sharing specific forms of data.

Firewalls

These are common elements of a network security model. Firewalls function as a gatekeeper between the internet and the network.

Mobile Device Security

Most people have mobile devices that contain some kind of sensitive or personal data that needs to be protected. Hackers will find a way to access it and that is why setting mobile device security measures in place is crucial.

Network Segmentation

Sorting and dividing network traffic according to specific classifications. This will make the job much easier for security support personnel in terms of applying policies. Segmented networks streamlines the assignment and denial of authorization credi

Security Information and Event Management

SIEMs are a mix of network and host based intrusion detection units that mix data log files as well as network traffic so that administrators know what’s happening across the network.

Web Security

Some of the purposes that a web security software serves include limiting internet access for staff by preventing them from accessing websites that may contain malware. It also works by blocking other online threats and protects the web gateway of the client.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now for more information as to how you can make sure that your network, gadgets, and devices are secure from cybercriminals and all other online threats.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/