by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Vast amounts of energy are being wasted everyday in the United States and elsewhere where there are electrical generating plants in use. Thermal power electric generating plants, regardless of whether they burn coal, oil or even wood, or are nuclear, typically vent about 60percent and more of potential energy into the atmosphere as hot air via cooling towers. At the same time gasoline engines have an efficiency of only 15percent.
Such wasted heat and energy just is not acceptable in today's world. We, therefore, need to adopt a holistic, industrial ecology approach to energy resource management, and aggressively minded programs to encourage use of combined heat & power (CHP), co-generation, waste heat generation systems and solar thermal collectors in industry, buildings and homes to remedy the situation.
Other countries can show us in Britain and the United States the way here, such as Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. In Sweden already for ages cooling towers are, basically, no longer in use. The water used for cooling the plants is carried to homes in the surrounding villages and towns for heating and it is, what could be described as, a closed circuit.
Ever since the days of Thomas Edison's first electric plant on Pearl Street the seemingly endless supplies of cheap oil have created a culture of waste in United States industry and among the public when it comes to energy production and usage and this is not just thus in the USA.
In order to remedy this situation relevant legislations and regulations may have to be revised that could and would create incentives for industry, manufacturers and customers alike to capture and use heat directly.
From manufacturing plants installing combined heat and power (CHP) and co-generation systems to building and homeowners using waste generation systems and cheaper rooftop solar thermal collectors, the technology to do so is out there. Whats lacking are the systemic incentives, collective and especially the political will. The political will, or more the lack of it, is apparently again and again the stumbling block.
In some countries we are now seeing the arrival of the first CHP plants at city block level, often fed with wood chips or wood pellets. One can but wonder as to whether they could not just be fuelled with chopped wood.
We must go back to school, so to speak, and adopt a big picture. We must develop the kind of industrial ecology perspective that is being pioneered by countries such as Denmark and Iceland. We must learn from those that already using such systems and adapt them, where necessary, to our own situations, or, where possible, just import them and install them lock, stock and barrel.
It is not rocket science, as I keep saying. The technology is there and it is not that new either.
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Capturing wasted heat energy from power generation
