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Kodak, the 131-year-old photography pioneer, filed for bankruptcy on January 19th 2012.Eastman Kodak announced early this morning that filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy was “the right thing to do for the future” of the company.In a statement, Kodak CEO Antonio Perez said company leadership decided the move was “a necessary step.”Innovation Trail has followed the story over the course of 2012.

Eastman Business Park power plant sold, will get makeover

Kodak is set to sell its coal-fired power plant at Eastman Business Park to a company that will convert it to a cleaner, natural gas facility.

Recycled Energy Development - or R-E-D - is an energy efficiency firm that works to harness waste energy to lower greenhouse gas emissions, as well as reducing power costs.

CEO of R-E-D Sean Casten says the company plans to invest up to $80 million in the plant over the next 2 to 5 years.

He says there are "tons of opportunities to take energy that we’re basically throwing away today, as a function of our manufacturing processes, not burn any additional fuel, but recover that energy. And now you’re displacing a fuel source somewhere else on the grid,  recycling the energy, and you basically have a situation where at the margin it’s exactly the same as a solar panel, it’s just a lot less sexy.”

The sale is subject to approval by the U.S Bankruptcy Court, but if approved Kodak will be paid about $10 million in cash for the utility assets.
 

WXXI/Finger Lakes Reporter for the Innovation Trail