Waste heat is the low hanging fruit of clean energy

ElectraTherm Green Machine

You know how it is when you work on something for a while and then you reach an "a-ha" moment? That's exactly what happened when I heard about ElectraTherm and inventor/founder Richard Langson. It's a relatively new company (2005) in Carson City, NV, that has developed a technology to convert "waste heat" into electricity. Similar to geothermal technology that takes heat from the earth, ElectraTherm enables factories and businesses that run on fossil fuels to create electricity from the wasted heat produced by their operations. Specifically, they offer a Green Machine product line starting with 50kW of electricity generation, placing them in the small-to-medium size segment of this business. What ElectraTherm's technology also has in common with geothermal technology is that it requires no fossil fuels and creates no emissions, making waste heat the newest source of clean energy.

The global renewable energy industry mostly defines itself as either biofuel (wood, crops, waste matter), geothermal, hydroelectric, solar, tidal or wind. They rarely include waste heat as a renewable energy source, ostensibly because waste heat derives from factories and plants that run on fossil fuels. Waste heat does not fit into a neat renewable energy segment, but it meets definitions of both clean energy generation as well as energy conservation. Therefore it is a hybrid technology and, as such, a disruptive technology with enormous potential. The real "a-ha" is the abundancy of waste heat electricity generation potential compared to the output of all the other renewable energy sources, combined.

ElectraTherm's competitive advantage is a patented technology that enables its Green Machine to create clean energy from heat thrown off as a by product of manufacturing or other operations. Instead of much more expensive turbine-generators or turbo-expanders used by larger competitors, ElectraTherm has patented a robust, but smaller, much less expensive and more maintenance free Twin Screw Expander (TSE) as the core of the Green Machine. From its website, "the power system uses a closed-loop organic Rankine cycle (ORC) to create pressure by boiling fluids into gas. The gas expands in a one way system and turns the patented TSE, which drives a generator to create electricity." The clean electricity typically offsets grid electricity for the customer, or could be sold to the utility. This truly green energy production allows coal and gas powered (polluting) plants that use ElectraTherm to improve both efficiency and production.

When asked about marketing and sales, ElectraTherm's President & CFO Steve Olson noted they don't have a marketing budget, per se, due to the already high level of interest in their products, but have hired a Public Relations manager and continue to invest in their website. They also exhibit at key energy conferences and through these contacts, plus inquiries obtained via their website, have amassed a prospect list in the thousands. A CRM application is helping sort out the best prospects. Their top customer segments to date have been identified as "stationary engines, geothermal, biomass, and solar thermal." Mr. Olson articulated their Value Proposition, saying, " at 10 cents per kW cost of power, investment payback is typically about 3 years, with payback dropping as the value of power rises. We expect a life cycle of 15 years for the Green Machine, with operating costs of less than one cent per kWh."

And when asked about their biggest challenge, Mr. Olson explained the logistical and diplomatic difficulties of sales and service to a truly global customer market. This is a challenge very worth having.