Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumCompanies Unplug From the Electric Grid, Delivering a Jolt to Utilities
Michal Czerwonka for The Wall Street Journal
On a hill overlooking the Susquehanna River, two big wind turbines crank out electricity for Kroger Co.'s KR -0.55% Turkey Hill Dairy in rural Lancaster County, Pa., allowing it to save 25% on its power bill for the past two years.
Across the country, at a big food-distribution center Kroger also owns in Compton, Calif., a tank system installed this year uses bacteria to convert 150 tons a day of damaged produce, bread and other organic waste into a biogas that is burned on site to produce 20% of the electricity the facility uses.
These two projects, plus the electric output of solar panels at four Kroger grocery stores, and some energy-conservation efforts are saving the Cincinnati-based grocery chain $160 million a year on electricity, said Denis George, its energy manager. That is a lot of money that isn't going into the pockets of utilities.
From big-box retailers to high-tech manufacturers, more companies across the country are producing their own power. Since 2006, the number of electricity-generation units at commercial and industrial sites has more than quadrupled to roughly 40,000 from about 10,000, according to federal statistics.
Experts say the trend is gaining momentum, spurred by falling prices for solar panels ...
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324906304579036721930972500-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwODExNDgyWj.html?mod=wsj_valettop_email
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)msongs
(67,395 posts)alternatives like solar panels and wind turbines. soon enuff all power companies will become non-profit models since jacking customers to pay shareholders will fail
Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)Given the amount of energy a factory pumping out 300,000 cars uses, that is seriously amazing.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,308 posts)but they use the heat as well, and it's 60% of total energy use.
https://www.bmwusfactory.com/bmw_articles/bmw-manufacturing-expands-methane-gas/
Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)still pretty amazing. I was just reading something about how much methane wasted food puts out. Methinks we need to do a lot more of this.
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)Deregulation -- thanks to the repukes -- eliminated utilities' pretense at serving the public and enabled them to do whatever they want, which is relentlessly pursue obscene profits while failing to maintain or upgrade equipment, laying off utility workers and forcing customers to pay the huge costs of their reckless ventures into nuclear energy.
randr
(12,411 posts)place will resolve our dependence of fossil fuels.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)It was policy decisions taken on the basis of normative values that created the economic landscape where renewables could compete.