E.ON to offer CHP

Energy supplier E.ON has announced it is to offer private and public sector customers new micro combined heat and power (CHP) generators after it inked a deal with CHP manufacturer EC Power.

Ashley Grist, UK managing director for EC Power, said that the deal underlined CHP systems' growing mainstream appeal. "Our company is owned by Europe’s largest energy company, Statoil," he said. "Another energy giant like E.ON getting onboard demonstrates that micro CHP has a seat at the top table – alongside other micro-generation technologies."

Details on when E.ON will begin to offer EC Power's CHP generators and pricing for the technology were unavailable, but E.ON's head of Sustainable Energy Solutions said the company was committed to rolling out CHP and saw it as an important component of the company's carbon reduction strategy.

CHP systems are similar to conventional generators but they trap the waste heat produced from the generation of electricity and use it to heat buildings or water. Consequently, they can deliver savings in energy use and carbon emissions of around 60 per cent, while further carbon reductions can be achieved by employing biofuels as opposed to conventional fossil fuels.

The units can be sized to meet the needs of a variety of different buildings, but a recent study from the Carbon Trust found the technology was particularly suited to buildings with consistent energy requirements, such as hotels, care homes and leisure centres.