The COGEN World Coalition (CWC) has been officially launched with a Vision Statement that strives to promote cogeneration technologies front and centre of the energy transition.
The statement was presented during the virtual launch event of the coalition yesterday, which was moderated by PEI editor-in-chief Kelvin Ross.
Enzo Losito Bellavigna, CEO at AB Energy and Vice President of the CWC, highlighted the urgency with which the world needs to get behind cogeneration as a critical piece of the energy security puzzle.
“Energy has become a national security and foreign policy issue, the same indirectly applies to CHP,” he said.
As the world weans itself from Russian gas, he suggested that “cogeneration represents one of the most reliable, flexible and fuel agnostic technologies in the energy sector” and can no longer take a back seat in our drive to decarbonisation.
“We want to raise the attention of a technology that will be a protagonist in the energy transition,” he added Losito Bellavigna, a sentiment echoed by Keisuke Sadamori, director of energy markets and security at the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Sadamori emphasised that with the current oil shock and resulting energy crisis affordable and secure supply of electricity remains a critical issue.
“The current energy crisis is urging us to facilitate investments in low carbon sources, highlighting the important and increasing role of cogeneration in achieving cleaner and more affordable energy,” he said.
Speaking to the importance of the coalition, David Gardiner, executive director of the Combined Heat and Power Alliance (USA) and President of CWC, emphasised the positive contribution that cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) can make by ensuring the most efficient use of clean fuels like green hydrogen, biogas and biomethane.
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“The COGEN World Coalition provides a platform for the CHP industry to raise awareness about the benefits of cogeneration in terms of enhancing efficiency, boosting resilience, integrating renewables and reducing emissions,” said Gardiner.
“The members of the CWC are committed to working with governments, international institutions and other relevant stakeholders in order to promote the use of cogeneration technologies in the context of an increasingly decarbonised energy system.”
Losito Bellavigna stated that CHP has never received the attention it merits, especially from policymakers.
“It’s a market with both demand and supply and there are so many players. This means the market is not concentrated…We have never organised ourselves, limiting our ability to lobby with stakeholders.
“The creation of CWC represents a change for companies and associations that have made efforts in the past decades. But we can do much better. The existence of CWC means exactly that.”
Energy efficiency
The Vision Statement, presented by Losito Bellavigna, is a response to the global call to reduce greenhouse gas-intensive fuels while simultaneously driving renewables and energy efficiency measures.
“Cogeneration can help to make energy systems more efficient, resilient, decentralised and carbon neutral – in line with the expectations of policymakers, scientists and people around the world,” said Losito Bellavigna.
“It is an enabling technology, which can empower industries and communities to generate their own heat and power in a flexible, reliable and affordable way.”
According to the statement: “Cogeneration is an essential tool to create the more efficient, resilient, decentralised and carbon neutral energy systems that are being demanded by policy makers, climate science, and people around the world.”
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CWC has committed in its statement to fostering collaborative relationships with all stakeholders to ensure that the benefits of cogeneration can be fully exploited to drive decarbonisation, while creating jobs, developing infrastructure and bringing together heat, electricity and gas networks/infrastructures at local level to enable the resource-efficient integration of substantial amounts of renewable energy.
The complete vision statement is available online.
