August 29, 2003—An alliance of environmental, industry, academic, and government organizations has formed a coalition—the Northeast CHP Initiative—to spearhead the installation of clean, energy-efficient combined heat and power (CHP) systems throughout the Northeast.
CHP systems, also known as clean cogeneration, produce electricity and usable heat simultaneously at the point of use. They are up to 80 percent efficient, compared with the national average efficiency of 33 percent for traditional electric generating plants. They work on nearly every scale, from small commercial applications of less than one megawatt to large industrial plants hundreds of megawatts in size.
Other benefits of CHP include:
- Recycling as much of the waste heat as possible for various facility needs such as heating water, producing steam, as well as providing process heating or cooling;
- Facilitating economic development through the creation of manufacturing and trade jobs;
- Avoiding electric transmission and distribution losses; and
- Reducing the need to expand the electricity transmission grid.
The mission of the alliance is to facilitate a doubling of the amount of CHP in the Northeast by 2010. To achieve its mission, the Northeast CHP Initiative will work to remove marketplace and government barriers to CHP development.
