Combined Heat and Power as a Platform for Clean Energy Systems

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While Georgia Tech is not yet operating a CHP system, it is currently examining options for lessening the campus’s energy footprint.

The state of Georgia could dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, while creating new jobs and a healthier public, if more of its energy-intensive industries and commercial buildings were to utilize combined heat and power (CHP), according to the latest research from Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy.

The paper, digitally available now and in print this December in the journal Applied Energy, finds that CHP – or cogeneration – could measurably reduce Georgia’s carbon footprint while creating green jobs. Georgia ranks 8th among all 50 states for total net electricity generation and 11th for total carbon dioxide emissions, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“There is an enormous opportunity for CHP to save industries money and make them more competitive, while at the same time reducing air pollution, creating jobs and enhancing public health,” said principal investigator Marilyn Brown, Regents and Brook Byers professor of Sustainable Systems at Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy.

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