We all know that renewable energy is the wave of the future, but that does not mean it has to be wind or even solar power.  In fact, we just found this great article at the Motley Fool about waste-to-energy power, and how it, not solar, is expanding rapidly.  Here are some excerpts from that article.

<http://renewable-power-partners.com/web_images/waste_to_energy.jpg> November 24, 2013—The numbers are in and the verdict is out: Much of the money that governments doll out subsidizing solar energy is for naught.

So argues author and Copenhagen Consensus Center director Dr. Bjorn Lomborg in the pages of The Wall Street Journal earlier this week. He points out that Spain, for example, spent more money subsidizing its conversion to solar power than the country spent on its entire system of higher learning last year, and that here in the U.S, we spent $14 billion subsidizing renewable energies in 2010 — $16.5 billion if you count nuclear energy. That was more than four times the $4 billion spent on tax breaks for the entire, more energy-rich, fossil-fuels industry.

All of which may be true, but we're not talking about ill-spent tax dollars, today. Today, we're talking about waste, period.

Energy from trash

Specifically, we're talking about Waste Management, America's biggest trash hauler by revenues — and apparently, nearly as big an energy producer as the nation's entire solar industry.

Through a variety of alternative energy projects, from burning trash in incinerators to generate electricity ("waste-to-energy"), to capturing waste "landfill gases" for refinement into clean natural gas, Waste Management generates the energy equivalent of 9.8 gigawatts, or GW, of electricity. In contrast, every solar energy company in the nation — combined — generates only a little more than 10 GW. One area of particular growth at Waste Management is the use of landfill gases to power trucks that run on compressed natural gas.

Today, Waste Management has the ability to produce the equivalent of 680 megawatts worth of electricity from methane and other gases produced at its dump sites. That's enough energy to power nearly half a million U.S. homes annually.

And as big as Waste Management is already, it aims to get even bigger.

Last month, Waste Management announced a plan to build a plant in Fairmont City, Ill., that will convert gases generated by its Milam Landfill into pipeline-ready natural gas that can power compressed natural-gas-fueled trucks. Waste Management estimates that this single landfill will produce enough gas daily to run 400 large CNG-fueled trucks. The project is expected to be up and running by late summer 2014.

Once it is running, it will be the third such plant that Waste Management operates for this purpose. And even those represent just a small fraction of the 130-plus projects the company has in operation around the country, using landfill gas to produce natural gas fuel, or burning gas on-site to produce electricity. Over time, the company aims to keep adding projects until, by the year 2020, it's generating enough renewable energy to power more than two million U.S. homes — up from 1.2 million currently.

Let's put those numbers in context. If Waste Management succeeds in its mission, we're talking about 67% total growth in energy production over the next seven years … for a company that's not even, strictly speaking, in the energy production business.

In contrast, solar energy company First Solar does about $3.5 billion in annual revenue today, and analysts think it may grow its business to $4.2 billion annually by 2016 (as far out as projections are available). That's only 20% growth in three years — versus Waste Management's projection of more than three times as much growth, in only about twice as many years.

While Waste Management is a great company and perhaps even a good investment in the long term, it is up nearly 50 percent already this year and is approaching all-time highs.  Stay on the lookout for some smaller, newer waste-to-energy companies on the rise and priced lower with greater potential to the upside.

Read this article in its entirety at The Motley Fool <http://www.sent2inboxsmtp.us/link.php?M=126144&N=26&L=24&F=H> .

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