North America’s Combined Heat and Power industry to keep growing

Thanks to strong encouragement from North American countries for the implementation of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) technology, the region’s CHP installed capacity is expected to increase from an estimated 93.5 Gigawatts (GW) in 2014 to 115.9 GW by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.6%, forecasts research and consulting firm GlobalData.

According to the company’s latest report*, gas turbines held the majority share of North America’s CHP installed capacity, with 61% in 2013, followed by steam turbine power plants, with the remaining 39%.

Despite its dominance, the region’s gas turbine market value is expected to increase at a slower pace than steam turbines, from $486 million in 2013 to $1.21 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 13.5%, says GlobalData. Meanwhile, the steam turbine market value will grow from $314 million in 2013 to $827 million by 2020, at a CAGR of 15.3%.

Sowmyavadhana Srinivasan, GlobalData’s Senior Analyst covering Power, says: “Both the US and Canada have been pushing for the use of clean energy sources and CHP technology. The US government set a target to increase the total CHP installed capacity by 40 GW by 2020, while Canada has been providing many incentives at the provincial level for heat and energy conservation, making investments towards CHP very attractive.”

Additionally, GlobalData states that the US is currently promoting the use of CHP for renewable installed capacity, while a number of coal-based CHP power plants are being decommissioned, or shifted to biomass technology, to reduce the usage of coal in fuelling power plants.