Combined Heat and Power
About CHP
Typically, nearly two-thirds of the energy used to generate electricity is wasted in the form of heat discharged to the atmosphere. CHP is on-site electricity generation that captures the heat that would otherwise be wasted to provide useful thermal energy such as steam or hot water than can be used for space heating, cooling, domestic hot water and industrial processes. CHP can achieve efficiencies of over 80 percent, compared to 50 percent for conventional technologies (i.e., grid-supplied electricity and an on-site boiler).
In the U.S. CHP is used in factories, apartment buildings, and commercial/institutional buildings such as offices, hospitals and universities, as well as in municipal applications such as wastewater treatment facilities and swimming pools. CHP’s principal benefits are reduced electricity cost, reduced emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and increased electricity-supply reliability.
CHP's key roles in a clean energy market are to:
- Reduce emissions while the grid transitions towards cleaner energy
- Support solar and wind power resources in microgrids to increase on-site reliability and resiliency
- Reduce emissions in sectors that are hard to decarbonize
To learn more about CHP please visit EPA’s Combined Heat and Power Resource Center Web site.