By Melissa Raymond
You don’t have to be a hippie to want alternative energy. In fact, big business should be the ones pushing for new, reusable energy. There are several exciting advances in alternative energy that can save people, businesses, states and the country hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. You may be thinking, I don’t believe in global climate change or it’s just an issue for liberal democrats. You are wrong. Green energy is the next big investment opportunity, and could generate a lot of money for you. Whether you believe global climate is a real threat or not, switching to more efficient energy needs to become the top priority in the United States. Most people know about solar panels, fluorescent light bulbs, and wind turbines but there are other products being developed or about to hit the market that could finally push American into the green.
There are many products and methods of conserving energy, creating clean energy and, reducing waste but one machine can do all three. It is called the the Green Energy Machine (GEM) and was developed by IST Energy. The machine takes trash and through gasification, turns it into energy. Just about everything but metal and glass (which should be recycled to increase sustainability anyway) can be put into the machine. GEM looks like a dumpster and takes up the space of about three parking spots. This makes it highly suitable for an office building or apartment complex. At max capacity, GEM can produce enough heat and energy for a 200,000 square foot building with a daily intake of 3 tons. The machine also produces enough energy to operate itself. But is it worth the $850,000 price tag if a business doesn’t produce 3 tons of trash every day. Yes, because the real benefit to the business is the trash consuming aspect of the machine. GEM eliminates the need for trash removal services which can be costly. Additionally, new legislation has been passed that could grant companies up to a 10 percent tax credit for making themselves more environmentally friendly. According to IST Energy, the machine pays for itself in about two years and then creates a profit thereafter. The ability to supplement the energy needs of a building (whether is used at the 3 ton max capacity or below it), eliminate the pricey coast of garbage removal forever, and tax credits, I’m sure the GEM will be popping up in many parking lots across America. With this machine, companies can feel good about being green but more importantly, making more green.
Biofuel has been talked about since the subject of alternative fuels has been around but not much has been implemented. One of the most popularly discussed biofuels is cooked and filtered vegetable oil, which can run in diesel engines with few and inexpensive modifications. Do you know what runs on diesel engines? Many state owned and operated vehicles such as school buses and snow plows. If the EPA were to certify this particular type of biofuel as proper vehicle fuel, states could mandate all diesel engine state vehicles to be converted, saving the state and the tax payers’ money. States could even strike a deal with fast food companies to get free used vegetable oil (which would only need to be run through a simple filter). This way, states would not have to pay a cent for fuel in diesel run engines and the fast food companies would get great PR and free removal of their vats of vegetable oil.
What about all the rest of the vehicles on the road? Options are limited for a simple conversion, but cars that run on compressed air are about to hit the market. Sure the zero emissions thing is nice but imagine never having to pay for gas again. The Smart Car lookalike is already available in India, the home country of the automaker which first developed them. The cars have a max speed around 70 mph and a range of about 125 miles making it perfect for cities. The car can be plugged into the electrical grid (maybe even the GEM machine mentioned previously). It may be a while before the this type of car can be sold in America due to the $2 million price tag and all glue construction but if I were an American automaker CEO, I would start research and development immediately.
There is a lot of money to be saved and made by making the change to alternative energy. The added bonus to all of these products and ideas is that they create more American based jobs and can save significant amounts of money at a national level. Plus, widely implementing these ideas will give the US more credence over developing nations at energy summits which are mostly “you go green first” weeklong draws. In tough economic times, the country could use the infusion of jobs and money the alternative energy field has to offer, not to mention the boost in nation pride for getting back in the fight for the most cutting edge technological developments which is largely being taken over by countries such as China, Japan, and India. You don’t have to agree with Al Gore’s whining to want become ecofriendly, you can just be in the business of wanting more money for yourself.
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