Last week Cleveland Scene wrote about a local brewery that is recovering its waste heat. They set out to convert the heat into electricity and useful steam for their brewery. In a great quote, the owner Patrick Conway says:
“When our engineer explained this technology to us,” says Patrick, “it was like putting wheels on luggage.”
The brewery will use the heat to run chillers, and intends also to generate electricity. But there’s a catch:
For the time being, however, Ohio’s regulations and Cleveland Public Power’s archaic rate structures (CPP is Great Lakes’ electricity provider) prevent recycled energy advocates and entrepreneurs from reaping waste-heat recovery’s total benefits. “At Great Lakes, our unit will be able to produce electricity, but won’t.”
As a result, the brewery only generates heat, and will continue to buy dirtier more expensive power from their utility. It’s certainly a start. But keep those regulatory barriers to wheeled luggage in mind every time you hear that the only barriers to energy conservation are the invention of cost-effective technologies.
