Today's SJR article explains the term for that extra, energy hogging fridge in the garage or basement.
“We call them ‘beer-erators’ in the industry,” Bill Mills, manager of energy services for CWLP, said Monday. “People put their sodas and beer in there, or the Thanksgiving turkey, but they don’t realize how expensive they are,”
A study conducted for CWLP by RLW Analytics identified old refrigerators as one of the areas with the greatest potential for reducing residential energy use. Since the program started, it expanded to pick up old window air conditioning units for free, without a rebate.
The CEO of Appliance Recycling Centers of America, Jack Cameron, said the refrigerator programs are why his company opened a new facility in Springfield. His remarks when the facility was announced point to the potential for the area's economic growth in green jobs.
"We believe that locating our new facility in central Illinois makes good strategic sense for pursuing other recycling opportunities throughout the region. With the heightened public interest in conserving energy and combating global climate change, we believe that ARCA's Springfield operation is positioned to capitalize on the growing need for environmentally sound appliance recycling services in the Midwest."
I asked the CWLP energy services office about the amount of climate-changing CO2 reduced by the program. They report that the first year took enough old refrigerators off the grid to avoid 910 annual tons of CO2.
They project that a three year pilot program of 3,600 units will have lifecycle savings (assumes a 10 year average life expectancy on the units collected and de-manufactured) of:
MHW savings = 26,100; equivalent to energy supplied to approximately 2,175 homes for one year. Tons of CO2 avoided = 24,665.
Springfield is proving the naysayers wrong. Yes, we can reduce CO2 while creating new jobs and helping people save on energy bills. Energy efficiency doesn't sound sexy but it's an absolutely essential part of confronting climate change.
My thoughts about the critical Illinois Times column on the same program were getting long so I made that a separate post.