HOT REVENUE

THE DAY MAY COME when all sorts of businesses can count on an extra revenue stream generated from what's essentially a byproduct of their main business: heat. Every day, countless businesses-from manufacturers to restaurants to dry cleanersgenerate and vent huge amounts of waste heat from their in-house power plants, mainly gas turbines or diesel generators.

Daniel Kammen, a professor in the department of nuclear engineering at the University of California-Berkeley, is among those promoting the capture and use of that heat. Called CHP for combined heat and power, the idea is to capture waste heat from turbines and generators and use it to warm nearby buildings such as apartments or offices. This could help cut consumers' energy bills and makes the burning of fossil fuels more efficient.

The growing popularity of distributed power generation, the use of small power plants by businesses to produce their own electricity, makes CHP possible. Kämmen says businesses quickly come to realize that by selling the excess heat produced by their generators, they can earn extra revenue without being distracted from their primary ventures. "It's a resource they're wasting, so if they can make money off of it for eight hours a day instead of zero, it's a benefit," he says. The cost of retrofitting buildings is cheap, Kammen adds, because it requires only basic, standard plumbing.

Even power companies benefit. They act as brokers, collecting revenues from both buyers and sellers. The latter need the power companies to handle things like metering, billing, maintenance, and customer service - the sorts of administrative chores no pizzeria or dry cleaner wants to do.