Integrating waste and renewable energy to reduce the carbon footprint of locally integrated energy sectors

Energy use continues to rise and with it the emissions of CO2. Energy efficiency methods have been applied across sectors. Efficiency gains and energy use per manufactured unit have fallen, particularly in relation to the processing industry. Residential, work place, leisure, and service sectors still use large amounts of energy and produce large emissions of CO2 despite efficiency gains. Successful strategies used in the processing industry for integrating energy systems, namely Total Site targeting, have been applied to locally integrated energy sectors. The method shows that it can be successfully applied to integrate renewables into the energy source mix and consequently reduce the carbon footprint of these locally integrated energy sectors. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.