Homes and factories should share to save, say experts

By SIMON COLLINS

Waikato University researchers say homeowners and factories could save electricity by sharing energy between each other.

Engineering lecturer Michael Walmsley said savings could be made by matching factories that produce waste heat with homes that need to heat their water.

He is part of a group that has just won a research contract of $2.1 million a year for six years to investigate energy efficiency and conservation opportunities, including more use of "co-generation" of electricity using waste heat.

"If you take Waikato, you have co-generation at dairy factories, all the hydro power, the Huntly thermal station and co-generation at the wood-processing plants.

"Where there's a factory with a co-generation plant, there are going to be times when they have excess available."

The project will use a computer model to feed in all local sources of energy and match them with users at the times when they need energy.

It will also look at cutting out the 12 to 15 per cent of electricity lost in transmission lines by generating energy locally from solar, wind and gas resources.

"Using natural gas directly to make hot water is far more efficient than pumping it to a power station and transmitting the electricity to a home to produce the hot water."

Dr Walmsley and a colleague, Egyptian-born Dr Bahy Noureldin, will also use computer programs worked out for US plastics manufacturers, to optimise energy use at big factories such as the Kinleith and Kawerau pulp and paper mills.

The research has been funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology under its energy systems and management programme.