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The latest news in clean energy policy & legislation
Bringing energy recycling to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) — RED Chairman Tom Casten recently led a symposium on energy recycling at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2010 annual meeting. Although conventional wisdom assumes that mitigating climate change will raise the cost of energy, this symposium will present a contrary view: that many proven technologies can substantially increase the efficiency of generating heat and power, cutting energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously. View Tom's presentation "Gray Is the New Green: How Energy Recycling Curbs Both Global Warming and Power Costs. Read more.
When Gray is Green — In the latest issue of The Nation, Lisa Margonelli makes the case for increased use of “gray power” sources, especially waste heat, across the Midwest and South. Calling these regions “the Colossus of Carbon,” she cites a RED analysis revealing the immense amounts of electricity that could be generated from waste energy at manufacturing plants in places like Ohio. “All those smokestacks,” she says, “hold the potential for a lower-carbon renaissance.” Read more.
A carbon-free future — RED public policy associate Melissa Mullarkey argues in Trends that capturing waste energy would help the U.S. transition into a carbon-free future. While we need to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels entirely, that can’t happen overnight. In the meantime, we have to start making big reductions in our greenhouse gas emissions so we can avoid the worst effects of catastrophic climate change. Energy efficiency, Melissa says—especially through technologies like combined heat & power (aka cogeneration)—is the best way to get here. Read more.
RED featured in Chief Executive magazine — The massive potential of energy recycling — and the counter-productive barriers it faces — is explored in the current issue of Chief Executive. The piece, penned by libertarian journalist Ronald Bailey, features RED Chairman Tom Casten. "Utilities have traditionally made money on how much they invest, not how efficient they are," Tom is quoted as saying. "It's the only industry that increases its profits when a company redecorates its president's office." Read more.
Casten wins Platts Lifetime Achievement and Inspiring Efficiency leadership awards — Clean energy guru and RED founder Tom Casten has received the Platts Lifetime Achievement Award for his work creating ultra-efficient energy systems in the U.S. Over the past three decades at several energy firms, Tom has developed and managed 250 clean power projects valued at more than $2 billion. One of those projects at an Indiana steel plant generated more clean electricity in 2006 than all the grid-connected solar panels in the world.
Tom also won the annual Inspiring Efficiency leadership award from the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA). The award honors Tom's long record of success as a businessman and advocate in the field of industrial energy efficiency. MEEA promotes energy efficiency in the Midwest as a means of achieving sustainable economic development and environmental preservation.
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Tackle climate change rapidly — Sean Casten's article in Spark argues that the current climate-change debate is based on a false assumption — that many decades are needed before greenhouse gas pollution can be cut. In fact, history is rife with examples of rapid change in the power sector. Read more.
The New Republic — The annual energy issue touches on how to diversify and improve our power system as we deal with climate change—through decentralization, waste energy recycling and more. Tom Casten’s efforts to lower greenhouse emissions and cut energy costs for manufacturers are cited. Read more.
ACEEE honors Tom Casten — The American Council for an Energy-Efficiency Economy (ACEEE) has selected RED Chairman Tom Casten as a 2009 Champion of Energy Efficiency, calling him “perhaps the most viable and effective advocate for clean distributed energy for the past three decades.” Read more.
Worldwatch Institute — The Worldwatch Institute argues that intercepting waste energy streams “can add a huge boost to the U.S. production of affordable, carbon-free, energy. … Energy recycling from fossil fuel-burning plants can help us make the transition to renewables much sooner.” The article concludes that recycling the energy content of all U.S. smokestack waste could replace about 30 percent of the electricity now produced by burning fossil fuels. Read more.
The New Republic — Sean Casten commends Obama for insisting that efficiency will play a major role in the country’s energy policy. But Sean stresses that the focus should not be on how consumers use power but instead on how energy is generated in the first place. Read more.
Nature Magazine — Nature declares that waste heat from industrial plants and electricity-generating stations represent a huge amount of lost energy. Tom Casten is quoted saying, “Separate generation of electricity and heat is utter madness.” He points out that over a century ago, Thomas Edison built an electric plant in Manhattan which sent its waste heat through pipes to warm nearby buildings. Read more.
Smithsonian — The publication’s on-line edition features an interview with Tom Casten explaining how to capture power that goes up in smoke. According to Tom, “I became convinced in about 1974 or 1975 that global warming caused by carbon dioxide emissions is going to be the biggest issue that we’ve ever faced as human beings and that we have to burn less fossil fuel and learn to reduce CO2 emissions profitably.” Read more.