Welcome!

The Intermountain CHP Center was formed by the U.S. Department of Energy to increase adoption of CHP in the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

Combined heat and power (CHP) refers to generating electricity at or near the place where it is used, and then "recycling" the waste heat and using it for space heating, water heating, process steam for industrial steam loads, humidity control, air conditioning, water cooling, product drying, or for nearly any other thermal energy need. The end result is significantly more efficient than generating cooling, heating, and power separately, and results in far fewer climate change emissions.

CHP already provides almost 9 percent of our nation's electricity needs. We invite you to explore how CHP can benefit our region's businesses and communities, and how the Intermountain CHP Center can help with technical assistance, project support, education, policy reform, grant information, and more.

CHP Showcase

Fort Collins, Colorado-based New Belgium Brewery, maker of the popular Fat Tire Amber Ale, prides itself on environmental innovation, energy efficiency, conservation, and recycling. Its renewable-energy CHP plant, fueled by biogas from the brewery's wastewater, qualifies as all four. "Creating energy from our process water treatment plant is great because the fuel is created by a waste product. If you have the ability to use a free fuel source, it makes sense to take advantage of it," said New Belgium's Sustainability Director. Read more here.

Golden, Colorado-based Molson Coors Brewing Company is the largest single-site brewery in the world. "Waste is a resource out of place," according to Bill Coors, third generation to the company's founder. Not only does the Golden plant recycle 95% of its solid waste and use up to 40% recycled content in its cans and bottles, it recycles its energy too. The "waste" heat from its 20-MW baseload CHP plant is recycled to make steam, used in its beer-making process. In fact, Coors has used CHP since the 1930's. For more on the Coors CHP system, owned and operated by Suez Energy, see the full case study.

Denver's Metro Wastewater Reclamation District (MWRD) is the largest wastewater treatment plant in the Rocky Mountain west. All the fuel to run its 6.2-MW CHP system is renewable and made onsite - a by-product of the water treatment process. For MWRD, "generated electricity costs less and is more predictable than purchased electricity." The system supplies nearly 40% of the plant's energy needs. All of the heat from CHP is then recycled back into the water treatment process, saving on natural gas use and greenhouse gas emissions. Read more here.

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