Combined Heat Power
Description
John Robb:
"new technologies now make it possible to generate electricity at the level of the home, business, or urban building. This technology, called Combined Heat Power (CHP) or cogeneration (lots of resources are available on this topic). In microCHP systems, you either generate electricity as a byproduct of heating or heating as a byproduct of electricity generation. It does the following:
It allows production of electricity within the structure it will be used. Eliminating transmission losses.
Waste heat generated by the production of electricity can be used to heat water or the home/building. That means the 80% of the energy that would have been lost is now put to use.
It makes electricity both resilient and clean. Transmission breakdowns have zero effect on the end-user. Further, the power is clean/smooth, generating little damage to connected equipment." (http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2008/10/resilient-commu.html)