The green movement has brought together some strange bedfellows — people, agencies or firms that ordinarily wouldn't work together — but this one takes the prize: A hospital and a brewery are joining forces to create electric power.
Gundersen Lutheran Hospital, with Wisconsin campuses in La Crosse and Onalaska, has joined together with local brewing company, City Brewery, in a heat-and-power project that is projected to generate 8 percent to 10 percent of the hospital's energy requirements. Previously, City Brewery would burn off the methane that's a brewery byproduct, but now the methane is captured, cleaned and sent to a generator that provides electricity to the hospitals.
As a bonus, the heat produced is sent back to City Brewery's wastewater treatment process to make it more efficient.
This type of gas-to-power system is a first. With it, Gundersen Lutheran is closer to its goal of making its system 100-percent energy independent by 2014.
Questions can be sent to Jim Parks at jrparks@mac.com. To find out more about Jim Parks and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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