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Vista Firm Turns Grass Clippings Into Energy

POSTED: 4:38 pm PDT April 22, 2008
UPDATED: 7:25 pm PDT April 22, 2008

If you spend hours every weekend cleaning up your yard, did you know all those grass clippings can be turned into clean Energy?

One San Diego company is doing just that.

From landscapers to weekend warriors doing yard work, an enormous amount of grass clippings and other green waste are amassed by San Diegans each week.

But a company in Vista plans to utilize it rather then send it to a landfill.

Envirepel has contracted with three companies to bring their green and wood waste to the Vista plant to be used as fuel to provide 2 megawatts of clean energy.

“At this point in time, it is turned into 18 hundred degree gasses that drive a boiler to make steam that spins a turbine that makes electricity,” said Envirepel CEO Tony Arand.

The energy is then sent back to SDG&E’s power grid.

“The ability to take waste streams and turn it into renewable energy and renewable fuels could be the beginning of an industrial revolution,” Arand said.

And, Arand says, he hopes Vista becomes the birthplace of that revolution.

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