From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Masnedø CHP power station in Denmark. This station burns straw as fuel. The adjacent greenhouses are heated by district heating from the plant.

A Combined heat and power plant, CHP-power station, CHP-plant or cogeneration power station is a power plant that uses a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat.

Cogeneration is a thermodynamically efficient use of fuel. In separate production of electricity some energy must be rejected as waste heat, but in cogeneration this thermal energy is put to good use. CHP is one of the most cost efficient methods of reducing carbon emissions of heating in cold climates. ^[1]

Conventional power plants emit the heat created as a by-product of electricity generation into the environment through cooling towers, flue gas, or by other means.

CHP or a bottoming cycle captures the by-product heat for domestic or industrial heating purposes, either very close to the plant, or—especially in Scandinavia and eastern Europe—as hot water for district heating with temperatures ranging from approximately 80 to 130 °C. This is also called decentralized energy.^[2]

See also

Energy portal

• Combined heat and power
• Micro combined heat and power
• Power station

References