Earlier this week, Earth2Tech pointed out 7 Green Ideas That Could Strike Gold & Save the Planet, highlighting green submissions from the Rice Business Plan Competition.  Reading through the list, there are some interesting patterns: three ideas (Ancora Energy, Biogas & Electric, and Sanergy) involve waste-to-energy, and two (Sanergy and Solavicta) would support small-scale, decentralized renewable energy generation.

It's interesting, but hardly surprising, that Sanergy fits in both categories.  Waste-to-energy lends itself naturally to decentralized generation, since (as Alex McFarlane of Harvest Power pointed out at Boston Green Drinks, back in March), no one wants to cart garbage around.  Truck garbage more than 100 - 150 miles, and the energy cost of transportation and processing starts to outweigh the benefit.

Waste-to-energy appears to be the next big wave in the renewable energy sector.  It doesn't have quite the photogenic quality that solar and wind have, but it is capable of generating base power (the garbage is your battery).  Moreover, it kills two birds with one stone, by mitigating the landfill problem while generating renewable energy.  For that reason it has a double effect in reducing global warming: it reduces methane emissions from landfills, while offsetting emissions from dirty energy sources like coal.  It should be interesting to see how this sector develops!