U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Industrial Technologies Program – Industrial Distributed Energy

Industry Partnerships

Thumbnail image of the CHP Compact

The CHP Compact (PDF 979 KB), signed in 2000 and again in 2005, formally established the public-private partnership for joint research, development, and deployment of clean, efficient CHP technologies. Download Adobe Reader.

The Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) supports public-private partnerships which build on the combined strengths of business and government to foster solutions to complex problems. DOE, in collaboration with industry, has developed visions and roadmaps with specific R&D pathways to accelerate the deployment, testing, and validation of novel distributed energy systems.

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Combined Heat and Power Vision and Roadmaps

  • Combined Heat and Power (CHP): A Vision for the Future of CHP in the U.S. in 2020 (PDF 1.1 MB), U.S. Combined Heat and Power Association, September 1999

  • Micro-CHP Technologies Roadmap: Meeting 21st Century Residential Energy Needs (PDF 398 KB), DOE, December 2003

  • National CHP Roadmap (PDF 2.2 MB), U.S. Combined Heat and Power Association, March 2001

  • Thermally Activated Technologies (TAT) Technology Roadmap (PDF 2.2 MB), DOE, September 2003

A key element of the National CHP Roadmap was a recommendation that partnerships be established among federal and state government, national energy laboratories, private industry, universities, non-profit organizations, and trade associations. Thus, DOE has developed partnerships with many federal, regional, and state organizations, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Clean Heat and Power Association, the World Alliance for Decentralized Energy, private clean energy companies, technology developers, commercial builders and developers, and states across the country. These partnerships continue to move CHP into the mainstream of industrial, commercial, institutional, and district energy applications.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been a valuable partner in DOE's clean heat and power program since the late 1980s. The EPA CHP Partnership working in collaboration with DOE and the CHP Regional Application Centers, has provided public recognition for notable projects through the CHP Energy Star Awards. The Partnership has focused on target markets, including the ethanol and hostel/casino markets as well as the biomass and biorefinery communities, The EPA's CHP Partners have installed more than 335 CHP projects, representing 4,450 megawatt (MW) of capacity, which has reduced annual CO2 emissions by more than 12 million tons. That reduction is the equivalent of avoiding annual emissions from more than two million automobiles.

The U.S. Clean Heat and Power Association (USCHPA), formerly the U.S. Combined Heat and Power Association, serves as the primary advocacy organization for the CHP industry. Activities and results of the USCHPA at the national and state level have resulted in passage of key CHP provisions in EPACT05 and EISA 07. In addition, the association has worked with all eight CHP Regional Application Centers to support CHP market transformation efforts in a number of states, including California, Connecticut, Ohio, and Rhode Island.

One of DOE's key partners is the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), which operates one of the largest and most successful CHP and clean distributed generation (DG) research, development, and deployment programs in the nation. NYSERDA supports development and demonstration of CHP systems throughout all end use sectors, as well as project performance data collection and analysis, market students, and support for the CHP Regional Application Centers, particularly in the Northeast region. NYSERDA's efforts have led to installation of over 100 CHP systems. DOE partners with NYSERDA, providing evaluation of proposals, and sharing "lessons learned" in deployment. This partnership has provided value for both New York residents and for energy professionals in other states across the country. NYSERDA projects have led to electric demand reduction, higher fuel-use efficiency, emissions reduction, lower energy costs, job creation, and product sales.

World Alliance for Decentralized Energy

DOE is supporting and is actively engaged in the work of the World Alliance for Decentralized Energy (WADE), which supports the world-wide development of decentralized, (distributed energy) across the globe. Through financial support of technical analysis on CHP markets, technologies, and regulatory issues, DOE supports world-wide education, outreach, and market deployment.

DOE's market transformation efforts have reached across to Europe and other countries who are members of the international distributed and decentralized community. Through its partnership with DOE, the CHP program of the International Energy Agency has conducted research and analysis of CHP markets and deployment efforts around the world and has used "lessons learned" from the United States' research, development, and deployment program to recommend market transformation activities and policies that will lead to greater CHP installations worldwide.