CHP
The waste of precious fuel in the generation and distribution of electrical power has always been known, but ‘cheap fuel’ and the development of central electrical power production industry producing ‘affordable’ electricity easily available for any development to connect to has been the accepted method of electrical supply.
With the realisation that one of the main sources of ‘greenhouse gases’ is the use of fossil fuels to produce electricity and with the rising cost and reduced security of supply of fossil fuels, the waste of fuel and the unnecessary production of polluting waste calls into question central electricity production.
Combined heat and power systems have been used in some countries for may years – producing both heat and power for individual neighbourhoods with short distribution systems they are at least 60% more efficient. CHP will become one of the main contributors to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the future and may be linked to communal solar and wind generation systems as the base load energy provider, in place of centrally generated electricity.
Once restricted to district supply size installations, recent developments
in Combined Heat and Power have created systems suitable for relatively small
developments such as individual blocks of flats, offices, hotels and the like.