The first CHP company is about to go public.
Massachusetts-based Tecogen, which makes modular Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants, has filed for an IPO on Nasdaq. It’s looking to make a very small debut, raising $25 million. It will list under the ticker, TGEN.
The company, which was incorporated in 2000, booked $16 million in sales over the past year.
Tecogen develops standardized, modular, small-scale systems, with a limited number of product configurations and a high degree of factory pre-packaging, to achieve quick integration in a variety of facility types, and to keep costs down.
Its cogeneration modules provide electricity, heat, and chillers, which provide air-conditioning and optional free hot water. Waste heat from the engine is recovered and used to heat buildings.
The company has installed more than 2,000 units and has a national network of factory engineering and field sales and service people.
There’s just one catch: while CHP systems can typically can run on various fuels, such as biogas, Tecogen’s seems to run solely on natural gas.
CHP is widely viewed as an important replacement for coal because it provides on-site baseload power.
Its use could save manufacturers $100 billion in energy costs over the next decade, said President Obama when he issued an Executive Order calling for 40 gigawatts (GW) of new CHP capacity in the industrial sector by 2020. He’s seeking to double it from current levels.
According to Oak Ridge National Labs, many industrial operations have an efficiency of 45% or less; waste heat recycling can increase the efficiency of these systems to 80% by capturing waste heat and putting it back to work.
It’s also being applied in agriculture, such as this California tomato greenhouse operation.
New Hampshire is the first state to include CHP as allowable under its Renewable Portfolio Standard.
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