Clean Energy
Application Centers
U.S. DOE Northwest
Clean Energy
Application Center
David Sjoding, Director, U.S. Department of Energy
Northwest Clean Energy Application Center
(For examples of alternative fuel use at
plants in the Northwest, see the project
profiles on Rough and Ready Lumber
and Finley-Buttes Regional Landfill at
www.northwestcleanenergy.org.)
Target Markets in the
Northwest
The Northwest has 10 target markets
for CHP, waste heat recovery and district
energy: pulp and paper mills, the forest
products industry, dairies, wastewater
treatment plants, landfill-to-energy systems,
food processors, colleges and universities,
server farms, rural utility systems and
railbelt community utilities (comprised of
six regulated Alaskan public utilities that
extend from Fairbanks to Anchorage and
the Kenai Peninsula). See table 1 for these
target markets sorted by state.
Editor’s Note: District Energy is pleased to
publish this column authored by representatives of the Clean Energy Application
Center District Energy Coordination Project,
a collaboration of the U.S. Department of
Energy Clean Energy Application Centers
and IDEA members with expertise in district
energy, CHP and waste energy recovery.
The creation of a national clearinghouse of
technical and project information in these
sectors marks an important step in making
critical information available to policy makers, project managers, end users and regulators to help advance the growth of this
critical energy solution sector.
The Northwest Clean Energy Applica- tion Center (NW CEAC) promotes combined heat and power, waste
heat recovery and other clean energy technologies and practices in a region comprising five states: Washington, Oregon, Alaska,
Montana and Idaho. One of nine U.S.
Department of Energy Clean Energy
Application Centers (formerly known as
Regional Application Centers), the NW
CEAC is composed of five partners that
bring a broad range of skills to accomplishing their objectives. They include the
Washington State University Extension
Energy Program, three state energy offices
(Alaska, Idaho and Montana) and one
private company (Cascade Power).
The Northwest is a very diverse region
with 243 utilities. Coincidentally, there
are currently 242 CHP systems in the
Northwest which produce 4,570 MW, rep-
resenting 8. 1 percent of the region’s total
electric capacity. Over the last five years,
the number of CHP projects installed has
grown by 21 percent, and 42 systems were
installed or expanded. Alaska has had the
most growth, with 15 units added since
2006 – developed in response to high
energy costs and the need for much great-
er efficiency. According to a 2010 study by
the U.S. Clean Heat & Power Association,
the market potential for CHP in the
Northwest with a 30 percent investment
tax credit is approximately 5,094 MW.
Services We Offer
The NW CEAC’s goal is to increase
CHP systems in the Northwest in concert
with the national CHP roadmap – a
vision set in 2009 by the DOE Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s
Advanced Manufacturing Office (formerly
Industrial Technologies Program) to provide
20 percent of the nation’s electricity from
CHP by 2030. This equates to 241 GW of
installed capacity. To accomplish this goal,
the NW CEAC offers policy analysis, project
support, and education and outreach.
Policy Analysis
Combined cooling, heating and
power development in our region has historically been slow due to cheap electric
power, poor spark spread (high power
costs/low fuel costs) and a missing policy-enabling framework. But these barriers
are being eroded as the Northwest states
enact legislation and establish policies and
regulatory frameworks favorable to CHP.
Since 2009, the Northwest has
passed 18 bills favorable to CHP
– reflecting a shift in awareness
and receptivity in the region.
Since 2009, the Northwest has passed
18 bills favorable to CHP; eight bills passed
