Summary: | Cogeneration, or the simultaneous production of heat and electric or mechanical power, emerged as one of the main components of the energy conservation strategies in the past decade. Special tax treatment, exemptions from fuel use restrictions, and regulatory policy changes were crafted to encourage its more wide-spread adoption in anticipation of higher energy conversion efficiencies. The expansion of cogeneration still faces a broad spectrum of problems, current and future: environmental restrictions; capital constraints; fuel prices; utility rates and future utility economics; and the difficulties of management.
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