Waste heat from combustion could power 11.4 million U.S. homes a year

Engineers at Berkeley, California start-up Alphabet Energy have developed a cutting-edge renewable energy device that taps the energy from an often over-looked source: waste heat.  Now, we've definitely seen technologies before that harness energy from waste heat, but according to Berkeley Engineer, Alphabet's devices are the most efficient thermoelectric devices ever created and the company is setting their sights on major sources of waste heat -- combustion exhaust from power plants and vehicles.  “Waste heat is everywhere,” said CEO Matt Scullin. “It is an absolutely huge opportunity.”  Approximately two-thirds of all energy produced is lost as heat. Global energy consumption is around 104,000 terwatt hours, which means 208,000 terwatt hours are lost as heat. Scullin estimates that if even just 5 percent of that waste heat was converted into electricity at the cost of 10 cents per kWh, that's a $1 trillion a year industry. Just in the U.S., if waste heat recovery devices were used at every oil, gas and manufacturing plant, 11.4 million homes could be powered by the electricity produced and it would have the bonus benefit of offsetting the need for the same amount of energy to be produced using fossil fuels.