Greater use of CHP could help Ireland meet the carbon dioxide reduction demands set by the Kyoto agreement, according to a company which installs CHP units. CHP reduces the discharge of all the pollutants associated with fossil fuel burning and could improve the environment.

Mr Frank Daly of BG Cogen outlines some of the benefits which he believes flow from increased use of CHP. The environmental advantage arises because more of the energy contained in the fuel can be captured and put to use as power and heat.

"We are using energy a lot more efficiently than conventional electricity generation," he says. "That means we can offer greater savings for the customer."

CHP is on average about 50 per cent more efficient at extracting energy from fuel than existing electricity production using coal or gas. The difficulty is that the added benefit can only come from the use of the additional energy as heat. "To make these things economic we always need a home for the heat," he says.

The greater efficiency means less output of pollutants. A UK study which compared CHP energy production to that from a coal-fired power plant suggests the use of a small CHP unit would reduce carbon dioxide discharge by 1,000 grammes per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity produced. Sulphur dioxide output would be reduced by 17gm per kWh and NOX pollutants would be reduced by 6 gm per kWh.

There are also commercial reasons for considering CHP. "We are using the energy in fuel a lot more efficiently, so we are offering cost savings." On the basis of total energy demand, his company is usually able to promise savings of 8 to 10 per cent, Mr Daly adds.

CHP is also a more secure supply. Power is local to the plant, and therefore safe from accidental loss, for example when road crews damage buried power cables. It can also be installed anywhere within reach of an energy source to drive the CHP plant.