Why Cogeneration?

Cogeneration, the production of electricity and heat at the point of use, is far more efficient than creating electricity centrally and distributing to homes and businesses by high-voltage transmission networks. This is because cogeneration utilises the heat that is otherwise lost to the atmosphere and local production eliminates the need for distribution and therefore eliminates network transmission losses.

Decentralising the electricity system represents our best chance of getting to grips with greenhouse gas emissions and quite literally weaves energy security into the fabric of our society.

In the long run, a decentralised system may also prove cheaper, cutting the need for investment in hugely expensive high-voltage transmission networks. By boosting the market for renewable generation and related technologies, it would also stimulate innovation. It would deliver an electricity supply far less vulnerable to massive system failure as a result of sabotage or extreme weather.

Decentralising energy would also democratise energy, providing real opportunities for local political leadership on climate change, and curbing the influence of the centralised industry’s powerful vested interests. By enabling local action and empowering individuals and communities as producers, decentralisation has the potential to bring about a massive cultural change in our attitude to and use of energy.

In global terms, decentralising energy could revolutionise the lives of the billions of people who currently lack access to basic energy services. Decentralised energy is highly flexible, allowing solutions to be tailored to local conditions and be installed much faster than a centralised system. Western governments must rise to the challenge of promoting globally a far more sustainable energy model than they themselves have achieved so far. They have a moral duty to incubate and disseminate technologies, skills and knowledge suitable to both international development and tackling global warming.

Facts

30% of UK CO2 emissions come from electricity production.

67% of primary energy input is wasted in the current global centralised model of power generation.

Cogeneration Links

The World Alliance for Decentralized Energy

European Cogeneration Association