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Cihang Yuan is deputy director of corporate climate and renewable energy for the World Wildlife Fund.
American manufacturers are making long-term investments in an increasingly complex environment: fuel prices remain volatile, global competition is intensifying, domestic supply chains are becoming a renewed priority, and the equipment installed today may shape operating costs for decades. In that context, one opportunity deserves more attention: modernizing the heat systems that power American manufacturing.
Cihang Yuan
Industrial heat — the steam and hot water that process food, the thermal systems behind chemicals and paper, and the heat running through countless manufacturing processes — accounts for a substantial share of manufacturers’ energy costs. Most of it still comes from natural gas, leaving manufacturers exposed every time global energy markets move.
