Increasing the UK's capacity for Combined Heat and Power Generation (CHP) should yield extensive benefits both on the environmental and economic sides, according to a brace of Government reports published this week.
The reports - one on the UK's potential for CHP, and a second on the progress of CHP in the UK, are published as part of the European Commission's Cogeneration Directive.
They predict that over 10% of the UK's electricity will come from CHP generation by the end of 2010.
They continue in the same vein stating that 17% of the UK’s total energy requirements could come from CHP.
CHP generates heat and power in a single process, which could greatly reduce levels of carbon dioxide emissions compared to the separate generation of heat and power, from both on-site boilers and fossil fuel power stations.
CHP can be adapted to a variety of fuels and technologies, and could play a crucial role in the UK's low carbon future. In 2005 there were 1,502 CHP units in the UK. Projections for the UK suggest that by the end of 2010, 36 terawatt-hours* (TWh) of the 350 TWh of electricity supply that will be needed will come from Combined CHP.
* One watt-hour is the amount of (usually electrical) energy expended by a one-watt load (e.g., light bulb) drawing power for one hour. Laymen and utilities tend to use watt-hours to measure energy rather than joules (J), for reasons of convenience and intuition. For example, a light bulb draws power (units of watts) over a certain amount of time, resulting in a net amount of used energy; a watt has units of energy-per-time, and an hour is a convenient unit for measuring time, so when multiplied together they produce a unit of energy called the watt-hour. The watt-hour is derived from the multiplication of the SI unit of power (watt) and a non-SI unit of time (hour). In simple terms, it means the amount of power (watts) used for any given number of hours. A lightbulb that needs 50 J of energy per second to light up (50 watts) will consume 500 watt-hours of energy if left on for 10 hours. The kilowatt-hour is commonly used for electrical and natural gas energy. Many electric utility companies use the kilowatt-hour for billing. This is a convenient unit because the energy usage of a typical home in one month is several hundred kilowatt-hours. In addition, the typical consumer can readily conceptualize the notion of "using a kilowatt for one hour”; common appliances that consume approximately 1 kW include hairdryers, microwave ovens, and vacuum cleaners. Megawatt-hours are used for metering of larger amounts of electrical energy. For example, a power plant's daily output is likely to be measured in megawatt-hours. One terawatt-hour = 1000 billion watt-hours!
The reports - one on the UK's potential for CHP, and a second on the progress of CHP in the UK, are published as part of the European Commission's Cogeneration Directive.
They predict that over 10% of the UK's electricity will come from CHP generation by the end of 2010.
They continue in the same vein stating that 17% of the UK’s total energy requirements could come from CHP.
CHP generates heat and power in a single process, which could greatly reduce levels of carbon dioxide emissions compared to the separate generation of heat and power, from both on-site boilers and fossil fuel power stations.
CHP can be adapted to a variety of fuels and technologies, and could play a crucial role in the UK's low carbon future. In 2005 there were 1,502 CHP units in the UK. Projections for the UK suggest that by the end of 2010, 36 terawatt-hours* (TWh) of the 350 TWh of electricity supply that will be needed will come from Combined CHP.
* One watt-hour is the amount of (usually electrical) energy expended by a one-watt load (e.g., light bulb) drawing power for one hour. Laymen and utilities tend to use watt-hours to measure energy rather than joules (J), for reasons of convenience and intuition. For example, a light bulb draws power (units of watts) over a certain amount of time, resulting in a net amount of used energy; a watt has units of energy-per-time, and an hour is a convenient unit for measuring time, so when multiplied together they produce a unit of energy called the watt-hour. The watt-hour is derived from the multiplication of the SI unit of power (watt) and a non-SI unit of time (hour). In simple terms, it means the amount of power (watts) used for any given number of hours. A lightbulb that needs 50 J of energy per second to light up (50 watts) will consume 500 watt-hours of energy if left on for 10 hours. The kilowatt-hour is commonly used for electrical and natural gas energy. Many electric utility companies use the kilowatt-hour for billing. This is a convenient unit because the energy usage of a typical home in one month is several hundred kilowatt-hours. In addition, the typical consumer can readily conceptualize the notion of "using a kilowatt for one hour”; common appliances that consume approximately 1 kW include hairdryers, microwave ovens, and vacuum cleaners. Megawatt-hours are used for metering of larger amounts of electrical energy. For example, a power plant's daily output is likely to be measured in megawatt-hours. One terawatt-hour = 1000 billion watt-hours!
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