There’s Vegamite, Veg-O-Matic, and now the Vegawatt.  A new power company is making a generator that will turn old restaurant oil into restaurant power.  The 50 – 80 gallons of oil (or more) tossed by restaurants can provide them power, and hot water.

Owl Power Company has a prototype system that they will be testing this fall, that should allow restaurants to take their old grease/oil and use it to power the restaurant.  Rather than tossing the oil in the dumpster (or selling it to bio diesel car owners), the oil would be poured in the Vegawatt.  Since many restaurants have to pay to have the old oil hauled away, this would save them hauling fees.

The 50 -80 gallons mentioned above should provide about one third of the power needed by the restaurant.  Using the Vegawatt during busy hours of the day should help cut down on energy costs, as well.

Rather than sell the Vegawatt generators, Owl Power will be renting them to the restaurants for about $400.  The generator is about six feet high and two feet deep.   Included in the lease will be regular maintenance on the machine.

By leasing the machines, restaurants don’t have to worry about buying and maintaining the Vegawatts themselves, they can concentrate on what they do best, cooking and serving customers.

Over all, restaurants should see a savings of about $850.  The Vegawatt would not only pay for itself each month but also allow more items to make it to the $.99 menu. 

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 11:31 am under Green Technology.

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