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A source for everyone interested in energy, business and the environment  |
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"...an invaluable guide to a more helpful future..."
-Walter Cronkite |
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COGENERATION:
Cogeneration, or combined heat and power, which can cut carbon dioxide emissions by as much as two-thirds using advanced low emission, low-maintenance turbines that can be ordered off- the-shelf. For those who use the steam (which can now be harnessed for cooling) cogeneration systems can deliver electricity for as low as 3 cents per kilowatt hour.
- In 1992, managers of the 2.8-million-square-foot McCormick Place Exhibition and Convention Center in Chicago were planning an addition that would nearly double the size of the sprawling lakefront facility. To avoid $27 million in capital costs for new heating and cooling, they decided to outsource energy to Trigen Energy Corporation of White Plains, New York. Trigen installed a tri-generation system that simultaneously provides any combination of heating, cooling, and electricity.
By using energy that would ordinarily be thrown away as waste heat, the system achieves an overall fuel conversion efficiency of 91 percent - nearly three times the U.S. average. Besides the up-front outlay, McCormick Place also saved $1 million a year in energy and operating costs. The system produces about half the carbon dioxide emissions of a conventional set- up, and saves 24,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 59 tons of NOx a year.
- Superior Fibers in Brooklyn, New York produces more then a million pounds of polyester fiberfill insulation a year for garments, comforters, and bedspreads. The plant combs virgin polyester fibers, layers them with adhesive, then cures them in an oven. The cost of energy for the motors and oven equaled five percent of total sales, until the company cut energy costs in half - and greenhouse emissions by a third - by installing a small cogeneration system to provide electricity for the production line, as well as steam. The payback time was two years.
- Coors Brewing Company has a 60 percent efficient cogeneration system at its Golden, Colorado plant, the largest single brewing site in the world. The system saves 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, along with 125 tons of NOx and 900 tons of SO2.
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