Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Cogeneration dates back 138 years but is starting to catch on in a big way today, with natural gas playing a huge role and World Cogeneration Day coming!

Our buddy, Jim Scherrer, the tiramisu illustrator of the difference between conventional and previously non-conventional natural gas development, also calls himself a “CHP Evangelist” and he’s founder of CHP-Funder.com. CHP stands for combined heat and power and Jim has been advocating for it for quite a while now with success. Indeed, his CHP-Funder.com enterprise has already expedited 43 CHP projects by matching to 26 funding sources with the sponsorship and endorsement of 40 international alliance partners.

Edison’s Jumbo Dynamo in the Pearl Street Station in New York City

CHP-Funder now sources over 40 CHP projects worldwide, with a capital value of over $200 million and an average value of $5 million each. Jim, in fact shares the following from some of the folks they’ve helped by matching multinational funders with qualified cogeneration and CHP projects.

“The industry needs this great tool to shorten the development cycle.”
CEO of International CHP Project Developer

“This is a transformative technology for our market. Wish I had thought of it.” Head of Business.”
Cogeneration Projects USA

“For strategically connecting us, you deserve your matching fee.”
Multinational CHP Project Leader

“During our power outage crisis, CHP-Funder helped us quickly solve our resiliency problem.”
Company affected by a PSPS power shutdown.

“A great way to bring funding to CHP projects, worldwide.”
Turbine Manufacturer, North America.

Jim also, via email, just shared some news about something called World Cogeneration Day that will take place on September 4, 2020. Here is the background:

People around the globe will celebrate the virtues and benefits of cogeneration (also known as Combined Heat and Power – CHP), open their shops for real or virtual tours, host webinars, discuss new technologies, and work to include CHP in energy legislation at the local, regional, national and international levels.
Each year World Cogeneration Day highlights one key aspect of the combined heat and power industry. This year the COVID-19 pandemic has taken center stage; yet, behind-the-scenes heroes have kept the lights on and the power moving. World Cogeneration Day 2020 is designed to celebrate the inspirational commitment of the people involved in the CHP power sector, often thanklessly and tirelessly working to keep the lights on and the facilities running smoothly.
This date was selected to acknowledge the first Cogeneration Plant at Pearl Street Station, New York City, in 1882, 138 years ago.  It began with six dynamos and it started generating electricity on September 4, 1882, serving an initial load of 400 lamps at 82 customers. Thomas Edison made use of the thermal by-product to provide steam heating to local manufacturers and nearby buildings on the same Manhattan block.
World Cogeneration Day aims to raise awareness of the contributions that cogeneration systems make to our society. World Cogeneration Day celebrates the people that design, build, operate and support the broad range of technologies from large systems down to tiny micro-CHP.
This event has been established by CHP-Funder.com and World Cogeneration Day will be an opportunity for both the technical cogeneration community and their business development peers to swing open the doors and have some fun while also educating those who attend.

And, the event will celebrate all the great workers who arrive each day with great passion for helping customers and their communities; diligently adhering to practices and procedures which enable us all to continue to power through this challenging time reliably and safely.
The website, WorldCogenerationDay.org will maintain information about this global project and tip-off those wishing to organize events. Individual open day organizers are encouraged to check back for event details. Event and brand logos will be made available. The hashtag #worldcogenerationday will also be used to tie in activity across different social media platforms.

This is a very interesting initiative and natural gas is often involved because it offers the opportunity to deliver heat and power at the same time with great efficiency, as we’ve noted before here and here, for example. and here as well.