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Combined Heat and PowerEven proponents of widespread and dramatic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are fond of saying "There are no ‘silver bullets'." However, combined heat and power systems (also called CHP, "co-generation systems," or "co-gen" for short) are about as close as one can get. In brief, CHP systems use the same fossil fuel combustion to produce both thermal energy for heating (usually in the form of steam) and electricity (often via a steam-driven turbine). There are numerous technological variations and components of energy conversion systems that may all be included under the broad heading of CHP. One might expect that if CHP systems offer such dramatic advantages in terms of energy efficiency, overall cost, and pollution reduction, they would be ubiquitous. Unfortunately they are not - due to a host of barriers resulting from myriad and overlapping local, state, and federal policies covering related issues (utility grid interconnection, air pollution, etc.). There is an active government and industry effort in the Northeast to promote the increased use of CHP, entitled (mysteriously) the Northeast Combined Heat and Power Initiative. That page links to an organization called the Northeast CHP Application Center, led by engineers and economists at the University of Massachusetts and Pace University and providing consultative services for CHP Systems in the seven Northeast states comprising New England and New York. Technical Resources The United States Combined Heat and Power Association (USCHPA) provides a nice “CHP Basics” overview; likewise the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s has a Distributed Energy Program that also offers a useful CHP Technologies Basics rundown. The Distributed Energy Program (referenced above) also has an informative and very useful web page on CHP Applications Regulatory/Policy Barriers, as does the USCHPA. The International District Energy Association offers a CHP On Campus Online Guidebook. The US Department of Energy's Rebuild America program published the Energy Smart Guide to Campus Cost Savings which devotes an entire chapter (complete with case studies) to CHP on campuses. Case Studies and Examples The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) built the William R. Dickson cogeneration plant in the mid-1990's, reducing the Institute's GHG Emissions footprint by 45%. Rutgers University's CHP Plant is featured in CA-CP's "Cool Solutions to Global Warming" case study compendium. |
