Technology Status

CHP systems are currently used throughout the United States at university campuses, military bases, hospitals, and hotels. While all of the necessary components are commercially available, integrating them into a CHP system currently requires custom engineering and installation of components purchased from separate contractors. Information on some of the CHP systems installed in the U.S. will be available in the installation database section of this site.

In 2001, the U.S. Department of Energy initiated efforts toward developing modular packaged systems that eliminate much of the time and a significant part of the cost for implementing CHP systems.

Some information on the various technologies that are integrated into CHP systems is given below.

• Distributed power generation
  Distributed power generation is used for producing electric power on-site or at a location close to where electric power is needed. Waste heat from these power generators is recovered for operating thermally-activated machines.
• Heat recovery
  Heat recovery technologies allow recovery of thermal energy from the exhaust gases and cooling systems of distributed power generation equipment.
• Thermally-activated machines
  Thermally-activated machines can use recovered heat to provide heating, cooling, or humidity control in buildings.