We strive to reduce greenhouse emissions with energy recycling and CHP generation projects
Two facts motivate our work. First, to effectively tackle climate change we must improve the way we generate heat and power since they account for two-thirds of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Second, energy waste is pervasive, as evidenced by the average U.S. industrial plant throwing away two-thirds of the fuel it burns.
Capturing waste energy is a fairly simple concept. In fact, Thomas Edison recycled energy at his early power plants, using waste heat to warm nearby buildings and unknowingly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As the above video explains, however, several policy barriers stand in the way of capturing this clean and efficient energy.
The potential of energy recycling is staggering. Studies done for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy suggest our country has enough recoverable waste energy to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent. That’s as much as if we removed every passenger vehicle from the road. Meanwhile, energy costs would fall due to increased efficiency. At a time of both economic and environmental crisis, that is a big deal.
Unfortunately, since Edison’s day, a series of policy barriers have emerged that stand in the way of developing this waste energy recovery. Current laws and regulations, for instance, often make it hard for clean energy projects to sell their power to customers, and the Clean Air Act, although it certainly has cut pollution, discourages energy efficiency.
Isn’t it time we think outside the box to reduce greenhouse emissions and save consumers money? Here are two ideas.
Clean Energy Standard Offer Program (CESOP)
A Clean Energy Standard Offer Program — or CESOP — would encourage private investment in clean energy projects and ensure energy consumers can access clean, cheap power.
CESOP has two simple steps. Regulators first figure out the true cost of creating and delivering electricity to your home or business from the best new power plants. Utilities then offer long-term contracts to any clean energy plant that can do it 15% cheaper. It’s that simple.
Market-based cap and trade
Another way to dramatically reduce greenhouse emissions and save on electricity bills is to use private markets. Rather than the government picking technology winners, a more efficient approach would set a single standard for emissions and have clean power producers sell their allowances directly to polluters. Over time, dirty polluters would go away and clean energy providers of all kinds prosper. All the government needs to do is lower the emission targets each year.
Critically, an effective cap-and-trade regime should measure emissions by output, tracking the amount of pollution that’s emitted for every unit of energy that’s produced. Efficiency would be rewarded, inefficiency penalized. Today’s pollution measurements, unfortunately, are based on inputs—the amount of pollution per unit of fuel burned. The more fuel you burn, the easier it is to meet the government’s standards. As a result, efficiency is actually penalized. Switching to output-based measurements would radically change the incentives to which energy producers respond.
Learn more about energy recycling in our recent writings and 
Read how to Overcome Barriers to Clean Energy and Profitably Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions.