Cogeneration illustrate a method of technology which is highly efficient and helps protect the environment. Areas of application range from micro cogeneration, internal power supply of a detached house, power and heat supply of an urban district or industrial plant and all by means of combined heat and power stations. Sufficient Combustion materials can be found in fossil fuels, natural gas, domestic fuel oil, liquefied gas, as well as renewable energy sources such as fermentation gas, biogas, wood gas, bioethanol and vegetable oil.
New and conventional cogeneration systems
Regardless of whether a combustion engine, stirling-engine, combustion turbine, or steam engine are deployed in the process of energy supply, all combined heat and power stations function on the principal of a power and heat cogeneration. Cogeneration systems thereby provide electricity and heat directly on site at the same time.
The relevance of combustion materials could play a major role in the future of thermal power stations technology.
Cogeneration-Planning and Cogeneration Economic-Efficiency
Cogeneration units must be ideally adapted to a building according to its expected capacity and its pattern of consumption. A CHP unit (combined heat and power) is labeled according to its capacity. A Micro-cogeneration-unit (< 3 kWel) a Mini-cogeneration-unit (< 15 kWel) or a cogeneration-unit (>15 kWel). There are quite a number of CHP manufacturers offering their products. More than 1.200 different cogeneration-modules from different manufactures exist alone in Germany supporting systems ranging from1 kW up to the larger 20 MW which is designed for the use in cogeneration plants. Cogeneration-Construction together with cogeneration-planning plays a significant role in the framework of a cogeneration Project. Independently of the price of a cogeneration unit, the success of a project can be measured and defined by the complicated legal and regulatory framework of conditions which have to be taken into account.
Legal Framework Regulations in Germany („Cogeneration Law“ and „Renewable Energy Sources Act“)
The extent of payment allowance awarded to the operator of a cogeneration-unit which is fueled by natural gas is determined by the German „Act on combined heat and power Generation“ ( a specified German law) which supports and controls the development of CHP in Germany. Power feed-in grants for a fermentation fueled CHP-Unit or a CHP-Unit run on Vegetable-Oil are regulated by Statutory law and the extent of grants is determined by the „Renewable Energy Sources Act.“
Economic Framework Regulations (Energy-Tax, Electricity-Tax)
Besides the directives on promotion through the cogeneration-act and the Renewable-Energy-Sources-Act highly efficient cogeneration-plants can also profit from the exceptional regulations initiated by the Energy Taxes and the Electricity Taxes.
Information about cogeneration
Since 1999 the Cogeneration Information Center has been offering a range of information on the web about Combined Heat and Power (CHP) free of charge and only in German. The category „Guide to Cogeneration Information Center“ explains the contents of the gratis knowledge data base site which disposes of over 600 pages of Information.
Around once a week our Cogeneration-Newsletter will inform you in German by Email about recent issues on the cogeneration-market and any current regulatory framework issues . Furthermore your will receive current daily announcements on 
and 
in Germany and latest news via or in English.
Our Cogeneration-Information Center consists of additional pages of information surrounding vegetable-oil-cogeneration, palm-oil-cogeneration as well as being linked to an interactive forum the KWK24-Forum. We have also been conveying information since January 2010 concerning customer protection and successfully referencing opportunities and risks surrounding quotes in the Cogeneration-Investment sector.
The Cogeneration-Information Center is an independent platform for information, is impartial to product preference and is compiled on a purely private initiative. Through sponsonship a portion of the accrued expenses for providing expert advice can be covered. We are currently working at full stretch on the completion of our new Cogeneration-Information Center. This new center will be equipped with a Content-Management-System and will exceed the clarity and quality of information we are already making available to users. We hope you are equally excited about our new Cogeneration-Information-Center which we hope to present on the web sometime in December of 2011.
