Roll over photos for details of energy recycling projects.
Recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy studies suggest energy recycling could provide 40% of U.S. electricity needs — twice what we now get from nuclear power.
That’s 200,000 megawatts of clean power.
The two thirds of U.S. greenhouse emissions comes from the production of power and heat:
Studies indicate that energy recycling could slash greenhouse pollution by 20%, which is as much as if we took every passenger vehicle off the road.
Most U.S. power plants are only 33% efficient. The typical plant throws out two of every three units of energy, largely in the form of waste heat. This (in)efficiency rate has not changed since the 1950s.
Cogeneration plants — also known as combined heat and power (CHP) — recycles the waste heat into clean electricity and useful steam. Cogeneration plants are at least 67% efficient and often 80-90% efficient.
Energy recycling could save the United States an estimated $70-150 BILLION a year on energy costs by generating heat and power more efficiently. The facilities that undertake such projects are generally able to cut their energy expenses by about 20%.
Denmark obtains over half of its energy from CHP systems, leading it to be the global model for energy efficiency and clean power. Denmark uses about 40% as much energy as the U.S. does to produce a dollar of GDP. By contrast, the U.S. utilization rate languishes in the single digits, among the lowest in the world.