WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reports that it has eight Regional Application Centers (RAC) located throughout the United States that provide information about utilizing combined heat and power (CHP) technologies as a near-term solution to energy challenges.

For example, the Northwest RAC recently worked with Washington State’s Climate Action Team to incorporate CHP technologies in three subcommittee reports. This could impact legislation that will allow new CHP facilities and projects to qualify for offset credits, and seek to avoid inadvertently penalizing CHP systems. The Northwest RAC also recently published a “Biomass Drying and Dewatering for Clean Heat & Power” guide. Created specifically for the forest products and food processing industries, the guide provides general information about drying biomass fuels, one element of getting the most out of biomass-fired CHP projects.

A few states away, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, the final chapter of a six-phase program with Chevron Energy Solutions of San Francisco is underway. The crowning feature of the effort to upgrade the energy efficiency profile of the campus is a 6-megawatt CHP system. The Intermountain RAC played a central role in the project by providing an independent review of the project developer’s study and proposal, as well as CHP emissions information on green impacts of the project.

For more information on DOE’s CHP Regional Application Centers, visit www.eere.energy.gov/de/chp/chp_applications/chp_application_centers.html. 

Publication date: 01/05/2009