New, ‘hidden’ source of renewable energy fights for tax breaks

[n2doc]

BY CHRISTOPHER MIMS
20 MAY 2011 2:06 PM
Waste heat: It's everywhere, and we're wasting it. (Hence the name.) Giant industrial processes throw off enormous amounts of the stuff, all of it not quite hot enough to be usable in conventional power generation.

That's where the waste heat industry comes in. Using liquids that boil at temperatures significantly lower than water, they've created systems that can use waste heat from factories to produce electricity. And now they want the government to recognize this power as another form of renewable energy -- including providing tax incentives.

It could totally happen, too. Obama recently visited a pioneer in the field, ElectraTherm, whose "Green Machine" can be hooked up to everything from existing oil and gas wells to biomass burning facilities in order to produce extra electricity.

ElectraTherm’s motto is "Heat is Power," and the company argues that harvesting the enormous volumes of untapped waste heat in the U.S. could lead to "the cheapest form of new energy generation." Of course, most of it would be used on-site, which is a good thing: it means no new transmission lines.

more

http://www.grist.org/list/2011-05-20-new-hidden-source-of-renewable-energy-fights-for-tax-breaks

[PoliticAverse]

1. If it's so good why do they need tax breaks/subsidies? n/t

[prairierose]

2. Why do the oil companies need subsidies after 100 years?...n/t

[PoliticAverse]

8. They don't need them they want them... n/t

[cprise]

3. Because

* It reduces GHG emissions while only saving a modest amount of money

* The market for the existing industrial equipment tends to create barriers to new would-be market entrants (the newcomers to do not have the economies of scale, network effects, revenues or credit of the established players).

[kristopher]

6. Is a natural gas co-gen plant renewable?

It's a stupid idea to lump it with renewables; just as it is to provide any public funding at all for *any* fossil fuel program.

[TheWraith]

7. Why do wind power, solar power, and electric cars need subsidies?

Short answer: change is expensive, and continuing to feed coal into the maw of our energy demands is cheap.

If a shopping mall can buy coal-based electricity at 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, or completely green energy at 16 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is a business going to choose? They'll choose what's cheapest.

[madokie]

4. Just think of all the heat wasted at an iron foundry

enough to power up several households.

[Kolesar]

5. Such can be funded through a utility-scale efficiency program

It would take state regulations to put such a program into place.