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Cogeneration (also combined heat and power, CHP) is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat. Distributed generation, including combined heat and power (CHP), can be distinguished from central energy resources in several respects. These distributed energy resources are small, modular, and come in a range of capacities from kilowatts to megawatts. They comprise a portfolio of technologies that can be located onsite or nearby the location where the energy is used. They provide the consumer with a greater choice, local control, and more efficient waste utilization to boost efficiency and lower emissions.
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 for distribution through pipes to heat local housing. This is also called decentralized energy.
By-product heat at moderate temperatures (212-356°F/100-180°C) can also be used in absorption chillers for cooling. A plant producing electricity, heat and cold is sometimes called trigeneration or more generally: polygeneration plant.
Perhaps the first modern use of energy recycling was done by Thomas Edison. His 1882 Pearl Street Station, the world’s first commercial power plant, was a combined heat and power plant, producing both electricity and thermal energy while using waste heat to warm neighboring buildings.Recycling allowed Edison’s plant to achieve approximately 50 percent efficiency.
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