Exergy is ... the energy that is available to be used. After the system and surroundings reach equilibrium, the exergy is zero.
Exergy, as I understand it, is a measure of systems efficiency, the work produced from all available energy. It is a term in thermodynamics, physics, although it can be applied to ecological and economic systems as well.
Personally, I've been working toward a
Second Law Economic system
with a zero emissions standard
governed by ecological principles
but that's just me.
Thomas Casten of Recycle Energy LLC calls it
Energy Recycling
using energy that would normally be wasted. For instance, when manufacturers create energy-intensive products like metals and glass, they emit loads of waste heat, resulting in smokestack after smokestack of untapped power. Converting that heat into clean electricity or steam— that is, recycling it— would dramatically improve efficiency, simultaneously reducing our country's energy prices and carbon footprint.
He'd like to see it included in the Energy Bill.
More from Casten, whose company has reportedly raised $1.5 billion:
Another form of energy recycling occurs when manufacturers and large institutions install small power plants on site that recycle excess heat to produce both electricity and steam. These facilities are typically more than twice as efficient as conventional power plants....
Recycling waste energy could provide 200,000 megawatts of new, clean power, cutting our country's greenhouse gas pollution by over 20 percent. That's more progress on global warming than we'd achieve by taking every car in the country off the road...
Denmark... produces more than 55 percent of its power capacity through energy recycling. The U.S. rate, by contrast, languishes in the single digits. As a result, we use more than twice as much energy to produce a dollar of GDP as Denmark does...
The efficiency of the U.S. power industry... at about 33 percent since the 1950s. That means three units of fuel are required to produce one unit of power; the rest is wasted.
Hat tip to Andrew Tobias, author of The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need and treasurer of the Democratic Party