Obstacles and Opportunity: Overcoming Barriers in Today's CHP Marketplace

Abstract

Combined heat and power (CHP), which can offer tremendous efficiency benefits to industrial facilities around the country, continues to be viewed as a long-term efficiency opportunity. However, the high up-front cost of CHP equipment and fuel-dependent operating costs have made CHP a difficult sell internally in some corporations. The recent recession and slow recovery have further discouraged facility managers and owners from making large capital investments such as CHP. This paper addresses the biggest barriers to new CHP project development from the perspective of those intimately involved in moving new CHP projects forward: CHP developers and CHP advocates. It identifies economic and financial barriers as the largest common barriers found throughout the U.S. It also suggests ways that CHP developers and advocates can address these barriers, and attempts to overcome them in the current economic context.