Happy New Year
I’ll be getting the blog going again this week.
I read an interesting article over the break in the American Scientist. A paper by Casten and Schewe titled Getting the Most From Energy (link should work for UNL library subscribers) discusses recycling waste heat. US power plants waste an exceptional amount of heat. The electrical utilities are not being profligate intentionally. People generally don’t want to live or work near large power plants and therefore we build power plants away from homes and manufacturing sites. As a result, little can be done with heat remaining in the spent steam after it goes through the turbine and generates electricity. These authors point out that in the US about 8% of all energy used is recycled energy (typically cogeneration, although not generally in conjunction with oil production). In Denmark, on the other hand, over 50% of the energy used is recycled energy. There is considerable room for improvement on this side of the pond. This obviously has all sorts of interesting implications for things like greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, cap and trade policies, and so on. It is a fascinating article that discusses some nifty ideas for energy recycling and I recommend it highly.
Posted: January 6th, 2009 under Uncategorized.
Comment from miggs
Time January 7, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Thanks for the shout out on the Tom Casten / Phil Schewe piece. I’m associated with Recycled Energy Development, the company that Casten chairs. The potential here is mind-boggling. More energy recycling would cut greenhouse emissions by 20% — as much as if we took every passenger vehicle off the road — while helping manufacturers save money and retain jobs. We should be doing much more.