Smaller combined heat and power (CHP) cogeneration systems have long fallen under the good idea category, but have never found widespread use, at least in North America.

For many years proposals have been floated and plans developed to place these types of cogeneration systems in everything from hotels to fast food restaurants, small retail operations and even residential applications from apartment complexes to individual homes. But the market penetration of these smaller output sets has never quite realized the potential or the volumes predicted for them.

A technology widely used globally in large reciprocating engine markets with diesel or natural gas engines and especially gas turbines, the smaller CHP systems moved down the horsepower chart, the less practical the technology has seemed.

Now, however, a new effort is being mounted for development of a small CHP system that comes to the U.S. with something different--a real world track record; 15,000 applications of a similar system in Japan over the last three years.