New look at energy option (cogeneration Maine)

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/business/stories/051014selfgen.shtml

Soaring oil and natural gas prices have Maine businesses scrambling to find cheaper alternatives for heat and light. One solution: They can generate their own power. That's what Paul Aubrey is suggesting.

Aubrey is president of Self-Gen Inc. of Scarborough, a spinoff of Technical Support Inc., an engineering firm he started 13 years ago. Technical Support focuses on industrial power design and energy management, mostly in the paper industry.

Now Aubrey and his seven-person staff sense a renewed opportunity in designing on-site power systems. Sometimes called "distributed generation" or "cogeneration," the systems let companies that need a lot of heat energy make their own thermal power, through the process of generating electricity. The electricity can be used by the company or sent into the utility grid.

Another form of distributed generation uses renewable energy, such as wind power or biomass. Self-Gen won a Maine Technology Institute seed grant to test a prototype of a wind turbine that could be installed someday at homes and small businesses. Aubrey has the machine installed behind his Scarborough home.

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