Oak Ridge National Laboratory
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/distributedenergy/
[From press release] The report asks “What if 20% of generating capacity came from CHP?” If the United States attained this goal by 2030, benefits would include:
* A 60% reduction of the projected increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2030—the equivalent of removing 154 million cars from the road
* Fuel savings of 5.3 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) annually—the equivalent of nearly half the total energy currently consumed by US households
* Economically viable application throughout the nation in large and small industrial facilities, commercial buildings, multi-family and single-family housing, institutional facilities, and campuses
* The creation of 1 million new highly-skilled, competitive “green-collar” jobs through 2030 and $234 billion in new investments throughout the United States.
CHP, also known as cogeneration, is the concurrent production and use of electricity or mechanical power and useful thermal energy from a single fuel source. CHP includes a suite of technologies that can use a variety of fuels to generate electricity or power at the point of use, allowing normally lost heat to be recovered to provide needed heating or cooling. Using CHP today, the United States already avoids more than 1.9 quadrillion Btu of fuel consumption and annual CO2 emissions equivalent to removing more than 45 million cars from the road.
Filed under: Energy and Climate | Tagged: Climate Change, Energy Efficiency, Green Collar Jobs
It’s great that CHP is getting recognition through this study. The real story here is that we can dramatically cut power costs AND greenhouse gases at the same time. I’m actually associated with a CHP company — Recycled Energy Development — that turns manufacturers’ waste heat into clean power. There’s enough potential for CHP in the U.S. to cut greenhouse emissions by 20%, which by our calculations is the equivalent of removing every passenger vehicle from the road. Meanwhile, the country would save $70 billion a year — and then there are all the jobs. This is the great untold energy story of our time.