By Sharon Hanks
A system that turns wasted heat into usable, emission-free electricity will be sold to Midwest businesses through a new joint venture announced this week between a Grand Rapids investment firm owned by Dick and Betsy DeVos and a Portage company.
The patented Green Machine invented and manufactured by ElectraTherm Inc. in Reno, Nev. has been installed in six locations worldwide and has earned awards from such respected publications as The Wall Street Journal and Popular Science magazine.
One of the newest of the six Green Machine installations is in the Michigan Technical Education Center at Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Kalamazoo, where a demonstration and announcement about the new venture was held Wednesday morning.
"We are pleased to announce this new venture bringing the Green Machine to the Midwest," says Dick DeVos, president of The Windquest Group.
The venture, called ProRenewables, LLC, represents a partnership between The Windquest Group, DeVos' investment management firm in Grand Rapids, and Pro Services, a specialized trades contractor in Portage.
The Green Machine uses heat and pressure recovery technologies to capture heat lost from virtually any geothermal or industrial operation and turn it into fuel-free, emission-free usable electricity. The escaping heat is a byproduct readily available from industrial sources, among them inefficient machines and manufacturing processes, and is abundantly available in the Midwest where there's a broad base of energy intensive industrial activity. Company officials estimate that more than two-thirds of the energy in fuel used to generate power in America is lost as heat.
The modular and mobile system captures heat by boiling fluids in a closed-loop system to create pressured gas that then turns a patented screw turbine, driving a generator to make electricity. To learn more about how the Green Machine works, click here.
Cost of the Green Machine ranges from $150,000 to $200,000, with a payback period expected in two to five years, company officials say. The unit, which won the 2009 Wall Street Technology Innovations Award and the 2008 Popular Science Magazine "Best of What's New" Award, Green Tech, has been installed for various applications, including boilers, stationary engines, and biomass, geothermal and solar thermal systems.
ProRenewables is authorized to sell, install and maintain the Green Machine in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia. It was unclear how many jobs the new venture will immediately create.
Source: Pro Renewables LLC of Kalamazoo; ElectraTherm website; Andy Guy of Wondergem Consulting, Inc. of Grand Rapids.
Sharon Hanks is innovations and jobs news editor at Rapid Growth Media. Please send story ideas and comments for the column to Sharon at [email protected]. She also is owner of The Write Words in Grand Rapids.
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