CHP is a highly efficient use of primary energy in industry. Roughly 50% of the installed CHP in Europe today is in industry contributing a 15 Mtoe energy savings to Europe’s economy every year. Industry must consume energy to drive its high temperature production processes. If it chooses to also generate electricity on the back of this demand there is a primary energy saving of 10% to 25% compared to separate production of heat and electricity.

A high penetration of renewables on the electricity network is at the heart of EU’s strategy for substantially decarbonising electricity by 2050. Closely coupled with this is the EU energy savings objective and need to renew its electricity delivery system. CHP is a valuable tool for increasing energy efficiency currently delivering 35 Mtoe of primary energy savings annually. The need for energy savings in electricity generation is huge and combining the production of electricity and heat in CHP works well with the emerging decarbonisation scenarios (2030-2050).