Guest Post: Is a Vegawatt Energy System Ideal for Your Restaurant?

This guest post from Paul Taylor covers a topic about which many of us are interested, the generation of energy from sustainable sources. The tool Mr. Taylor introduces is called the Vegawatt, designed for restaurant use. Read on! – GRM

A Vegawatt™ system contains more than just power generation equipment.
It includes a turn-key waste vegetable oil (WVO) refinery, automatically transforming the darkest, nastiest used cooking oil into fuel appropriate for power generation.
Source: Vegawatt

As I constantly browse the Internet looking for new and innovative ways people have been developing green technologies, I recently stumbled across a website that promotes using a system to use vegetable cooking oil to power your restaurant. Although this isn’t a new technology by any means, Vegawatt is not a well-known technology to many – at least those in my rural community. When you consider how much money is spent on the electricity bill of any particular restaurant, a method to fuel your own miniaturized power plant using Vegawatt could be quite interesting to investigate.

1. Biofuel – These Vegawatt systems utilize your old cooking oil in order to fuel the power plant. According to the company’s website, this system is ideal to power your restaurant if you have three to five deep-fryers on site. For regular to large-sized fast food locations, the power generation could be ideal to diminish the power that is used from the grid. Not only will this provide a cheaper way to maintain your establishment, but it could also assist in the removal of waste products.

2. What it Does for LEED – For those establishments that are trying to get subsidies and grants based on a LEED score, these Vegawatt power plants can be greatly beneficial to this score in a variety of ways. The more your establishment or home conforms to green living and sustainability, the higher your LEED score will become. Depending on your situation, you could receive tax cuts, grants, specialized loans, and more by having a high score. For the Vegawatt system, this score is affected by:

Renewable Energy
Emissions Reduction
Solid Waste Management

3. Direct Benefits – The Vegawatt system isn’t designed to generate 100 percent of your restaurant’s power needs. Although it is designed to create the most power possible, it also provides a method to safely dispose of cooking oils. Essentially, you are paid in power generation by “recycling” your oil into the unit. Personally, I find the procedure quite alluring especially for rural and private locales. While the amount of power is dependent on the amount of oil your establishment uses, the savings and marketability could make installation of these units far worth the investment.

4. Marketability – How does waste removal and power generation play into marketing for an establishment? In today’s world, a large portion of people are looking to live a greener and more sustainable lifestyle. By mentioning that your restaurant utilizes such a device as this unit, you are placating to the general public by providing a cleaner location. Not only are you attracting attention to yourself as a company that reuses cooking oil to power the locale, but you’re showing eco-friendly practices for a sustainable future. Although it may not impact a large portion of your patrons, such decisions could greatly impact others to visit.

Thanks to the innovations of today, there are many ways that a restaurant can improve its own sustainability. Between the Vegawatt system above and a small solar array installation, a large portion of the restaurant’s power demands can be accommodated. Low energy devices such as LED and CFL lighting can help further reduce power consumption from illumination that is utilized from open to close. Even motion-sensing light switches in bathrooms could make a great impact to the electric bill if you don’t need to leave the lights on. Discover other ways to improve your facility in order to secure a sustainable future for everyone.

Author Bio: Paul Taylor started www.babysittingjobs.com which offers an aggregated look at those sites to help families find sitters and to help sitters find families easier than ever. He loves writing, with the help of his wife. He has contributed quality articles for different blogs & websites.

[source: http://feeds.importantmedia.org/~r/IM-greenbuildingelements/~3/kyYNQgfgNuY/]