Recycling the heat that spews from industrial smokestacks may be one of the biggest opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, yet not many climate-savvy entrepreneurs are aware of it. When it comes to energy conservation, “[b]y and large, the world ignores the biggest, single most cost-effective, most profitable thing to do, which is recycle the energy that we’re wasting,” says Thomas Casten, chairman of the Illinois-based company Recycled Energy Development (RED).
Of the 500,000 smokestacks in the United States, the 47,500 stacks that produce waste heat above 260 degrees Celsius (500 degrees Fahrenheit) could produce at least 50,000 megawatts of power, says Casten. That’s almost half the energy produced by the U. S. nuclear fleet, he notes. Companies like RED and its competitors, Cain Industries and GTS Energy, Inc., all work to help develop waste heat recovery in the United States.
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Noelle dEstries
Noelle d'Estries, an early GO employee who took on the varied roles of Community Manager, green celebrity blogger, and more. She currently runs worstcookever.com GO entered Noelle's life in February 2007 while she was burning tires in her backyard. A phone call from the green gods at GO, burnt out the fires. Now, Noelle happily wears her GO sweatshirt while eating organic veggies and asking for paper, not plastic. A regular at the local farmer's market, Noelle shuns raking leaves and lawn maintenance, while making gourmet foods constantly. When not staring at her computer screen, she spends time with her equally attractive dog, Tessa, cat, Tim and lover Paul. She currently holds all three point records at RIT and could eat avocados and drink wine for the rest of her life.
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