On a warm summer night in Chicago, thousands gathered in Millennium Park to watch the new documentary Carbon Nation. Recycled Energy Development’s own Sean Casten is featured in the film discussing energy recycling as a profitable way to mitigate climate change. “I don’t know of any bigger opportunity to make more money reducing more C02 than this one. So, if you don’t give a damn about the environment, do it because you’re a greedy bastard and just want cheap power,” says Casten.

The much buzzed-about film attracted a Who’s Who of Chicago media, government and business leaders, including journalist Bill Kurtis, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and producer/businessman Craig Sieben.

This solutions-based, “big tent film” about tackling climate change while boosting the economy inspired the audience.  Let’s hope other cities embrace it as warmly as our hometown has.

We hope you’ll be hearing a lot more about energy recycling now that several companies in the field have teamed up to launch a new initiative called Heat is Power. The goal is to educate lawmakers and the public about the enormous potential of the type of energy recycling known as waste heat recovery—or as they put it, “WH2E” (waste heat to electricity)—to help solve our energy woes and put America back to work. According to Heat is Power, WH2E is the “missing link to America’s clean energy future” and has the potential to “boost U.S. competitiveness and keep American industry in America by providing a new source of profit or cheap onsite clean electricity for our industrial manufacturers.”

The group also points out that, “no country is yet a leader in exports of this technology… American companies today can manufacture this technology with greater than 90% American content. Capturing the export market of this technology will catapult the United States in the global clean energy race and result in the creation of sustained American manufacturing jobs.”

The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) just released the results of a comprehensive study on how to improve industrial energy efficiency. It makes an important point: it pays to invest in recycled energy.

Conducted by Keybridge Research and the University of Maryland’s Inforum Modeling Project, the study looked at IECA’s Sustainable Manufacturing & Growth Initiative policy recommendations, which include investment tax credits for combined heat and power (CHP) and recycled energy, a Clean Energy Standard Offer Program (CESOP) and other proposals. The researchers found that implementing IECA’s recommendations would dramatically improve American manufacturing competitiveness and:

• Increase real GDP by $77 billion in 2020.
• Increase cumulative employment by 9.4 million job-years in 2010-2030.
• Increase cumulative private investment by more than $1 trillion in 2010-2030.
• Increase family income by an average of $788 (0.68%) in 2020.
• Increase cumulative net exports by $392 billion in 2010-2030.
• Reduce energy-related GHG emissions by 13% in 2020.

The study goes on to say that “the net fiscal cost associated with the IECA recommendations would be less than 0.1% of discretionary government spending between 2011-2030, and would result in a cumulative increase in real GDP growth that is approximately 20 times greater than the cumulative net fiscal cost — providing U.S. taxpayers with significant ‘bang for the buck.’”

How many times have we heard that “clean coal” is the answer to our energy worries? It’s as if all you have to do is rinse off the coal before you burn it and — presto! —  you get clean, cheap energy.

The truth is, coal’s only cheap if it’s dirty. RED’s Sean Casten has a column on this subject in Grist.  Sean writes, “There are no plausible futures where coal with [carbon capture and storage] is economically viable… Proponents will argue that (a) it may be expensive now, but with R&D its price will come down and (b) since coal plays such a significant role in our electric system today, [clean] coal… simply must play a role in the electric system of the future. Neither assertion stands up to economic scrutiny.”

The best way to clean up coal is to use less of it by generating more power from clean and affordable sources like energy recycling.

It was Sean Casten in 2009. Now it’s Craig Bennett in 2010. 
 
The prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs has again recognized the caliber of RED’s management team by naming Craig Bennett to its Emerging Leaders Class of 2010. 
 
Established in 2008 with support from the McCormick Foundation, the goal of the program is to identify and engage future thought leaders who will help Chicago compete and thrive in the global era. Each Emerging Leaders class examines, discusses, and makes recommendations on timely policy issues such as energy and the environment, the global economy, foreign policy, and migration.
 
Craig is a vice president and associate general counsel at RED and has ten years experience in the energy industry. He’s also a general in the Army National Guard.  We’re proud that the Chicago Council has recognized his expertise and look forward to seeing the work of the Class of ’10. 
 
By choosing RED executives two years in a row, the Chicago Council is clearly taking notice of the potential of energy recycling to change the way the U.S. makes power. 

Fox News shines a light on recycled energy as a clean and low-cost source of power that could make an enormous difference in our country, yet is often overshadowed by “sexier” and more expensive forms of clean energy. Fox reports that policy makers have overlooked “a power source boasting far greater reliability and intensity than both solar and wind power.”

Fox visited the energy recycling project at the Arcelor Mittal steel plant in Indiana, and notes that recycled energy, which it calls “The Other Green Energy,” has massive potential to slash energy costs and carbon emissions at the same time. Fox interviewed RED’s Tom Casten, who said, “What they’ve done at this plant produces about twice the amount of clean energy as all of the solar collectors in the U.S.” Tom explained that as a nation we are allowing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of energy to literally go up in smoke as wasted heat that could be captured and turned into useful, clean power. “We are the Saudi Arabia of waste heat,” he said. “You can either use it or lose it.”

In my recent editorial in the Electricity Journal, I argue that many people miss the big picture when looking for the best ways to get more bang for their energy buck. Switching to CFLs or putting more insulation in our homes are hot ticket items that make environmentally-minded consumers feel like they’re making a difference. But the reality is we could do far more to cut global warming emissions if we paid attention to something much more consequential: the way power is actually generated.

Two-thirds of greenhouse emissions come from the production of power and heat. Although the industrial sector by far uses (and wastes) the most energy, efficiency advocates concentrate almost exclusively on homes and commercial offices. But in fact, manufacturing facilities provide the biggest chance to slash emissions while simultaneously reducing energy bills.

Read more about how waste heat recovery and cogeneration would allow our nation’s industrial sector to become far more efficient.

Energy mogul T. Boone Pickens, X Prize Foundation chairman Peter Diamandis and RED chairman Tom Casten joined MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan to discuss solutions to our national energy crisis. The consensus? Efficiency in how we generate power is key.

As Ratigan points out, “No matter what we do to source our energy, efficiency is the fastest way to begin addressing the actual energy problem… Combined heat and power [is] a proven game changer.”

Casten also stressed the usefulness of combined heat and power  and other energy recycling processes like waste heat recovery to ensure a more energy-efficient America. “We really need to understand that the issue is our utility and regulatory system. Utilities got to 34 percent efficiency when Eisenhower was in the White House. They’re at the same level today. We throw away two-thirds of the energy and it causes many of the problems we have… You [need to] build power plants where you can recycle the heat the way Edison did… Efficiency has to be the fuel of the future.” Watch video.

RED Chairman Tom Casten has a new piece in the Chicago Tribune about the need for a sensible energy policy that rewards efficient, clean power generation like energy recycling.

He writes: “The dramatic images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico serve as a stark reminder that America needs to transition to a new clean energy economy… For the last 30 years, I have watched America increase our energy dependence and lose our competitive edge, in part because of a grossly inefficient energy system… Despite its potential to cut energy costs and greenhouse emissions while preserving manufacturing jobs, energy recycling languishes in the U.S. because of outdated and badly misguided energy policies… By enacting meaningful clean energy legislation, the federal government can finally unleash a wave of American innovation, cutting our dependence on fossil fuels while we develop both cleaner and cheaper domestic power.”

Read the full op-ed here.

Photo courtesy of NOAA.

RED has acquired the Honey Lake biomass power plant in Wendel, California. Built in 1989, the 30-megawatt plant leverages nearby geothermal energy to help generate electricity from a biomass feedstock of forest thinnings, logging residue, mill wastes and other waste wood.

Honey Lake’s giving us a new way to do what we do best: take energy that would otherwise be wasted and convert it into clean power and processed steam, i.e., recycling energy. Whether recycling heat that would otherwise be thrown away at a metals plant or recycling biomass waste that would clog landfills, the principal is the same.

We’re going to put our capital and our team’s extensive clean energy expertise to work enhancing the plant’s efficiency and production. These enhancements could reduce California CO2 emissions by 44,000 metric tons per year. That’s the equivalent of taking more than 8,000 cars off the road. Sweet.