5.16.2007

Energy efficiency in New York

How to profit from waste:
NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - New York City could cut energy use by nearly a third with measures like capturing waste heat from power plants and air conditioning units, the head of United Technologies Corp. said on Tuesday.

UTC Chief and CEO George David said waste heat from building air conditioners could be used to make hot water, instead of traditional applications that directly apply a burner to the water.

Waste heat could also be tapped at small electric generating systems in buildings, perhaps replacing inefficient centralized power plants, he said.

Small generators can be 70 percent efficient while centralized power plants are only about 30 percent efficient.

"Let's start with the fact that 91 percent of the energy coming out of the ground is lost or wasted before it becomes useful work," David told delegates at the second C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York. "It doesn't have to be that way, not remotely." [...]

UTC would benefit if cities undertook his suggestions. It makes co-generator systems, stationary fuel cells, heating and air conditioning systems, and elevators that capture energy when they descend, among other things.

New York's buildings and cars use the equivalent amount of energy produced by 35 700-Megawatt power plants, and buildings alone use nearly 80 percent of the city's energy load.

David said efficient buildings, and cars that convert the energy wasted when they brake, could cut that energy-use equivalent to 24 plants, which would reduce fossil fuel emissions.
Of course, everything we do to increase efficiency is terribly costly and will kill millions of poor children and there will much much gnashing of teeth.