Last week Cleveland Scene wrote about a local brewery that is recovering its waste heat. They set out to convert the heat into electricity and useful steam for their brewery. In a great quote, the owner Patrick Conway says:
"When our engineer explained this technology to us," says Patrick, "it was like putting wheels on luggage."
The brewery will use the heat to run chillers, and intends also to generate electricity. But there's a catch:
For the time being, however, Ohio's regulations and Cleveland Public Power's archaic rate structures (CPP is Great Lakes' electricity provider) prevent recycled energy advocates and entrepreneurs from reaping waste-heat recovery's total benefits. "At Great Lakes, our unit will be able to produce electricity, but won't."
As a result, the brewery only generates heat, and will continue to buy dirtier more expensive power from their utility. It's certainly a start. But keep those regulatory barriers to wheeled luggage in mind every time you hear that the only barriers to energy conservation are the invention of cost-effective technologies.
Do we need nuclear and coal plants for baseload power?
If you can’t beat ‘em, cheat ‘em
Comments
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Biodiversivist Posted 2:32 am
15 Aug 2008
I've learned a lot about regulatory barriers to clean energy from your posts. Examples like this along with others, like biofuel mandates, suggest that avoiding or overcoming generic governmental incompetence is going to be an ongoing struggle.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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randino Posted 4:53 am
15 Aug 2008
Randy Cunningham
Cleveland, OH
Randy Cunningham
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JakobFabian01 Posted 9:56 am
15 Aug 2008
"Akron-based ReXorce Thermionics, Inc. just received a $4.3 million grant from Ohio's Third Frontier Project, which funds innovative high-tech research to advance its work on waste-heat recovery."
But the local bureaucrats have to change the rules of energy distribution in order to implement this new technology. And there are, as always, barriers in the practice of other, BIGGER private corporations. As the SCENE reporter wrote:
"Privately owned utilities [...] usually discourage companies, large and small, from installing on-site waste-heat-recovery-based power generation by charging prohibitively high rates for backup power should the local supply break down. Such stand-alone power supplies threaten utilities' bottom lines. After all, profits are derived from costs passed on to users."
I do admire the Great Lakes Brewery. This company has always had a strong environmental consciousness, which even shows in the name given to one of its great beers: "Burning River Pale Ale." This name commemorates the infamous 1969 fire on Cleveland's Cuyahoga River, which served as an alarm bell for environmentalists. These are the best of the good guys!
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