British Parliament Members Visit the CHP Integration Test Center

On January 30, 2002 several members of the British Parliament were in Washington, DC, for a Summit on Climate Change and Renewable Energy. The summit, designed to bring together members of the U.S. Congress and their counterparts from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, addressed the issues of climate change, alternative energy, and global emissions reductions.

As part of their weeklong activities, the delegation visited the Cooling, Heating and Power (CHP) Integration Test Center at the Chesapeake Building on the University of Maryland campus.

The CHP Integration Test Center is a research facility in the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering and is directed by Dr. Reinhard Radermacher. Work conducted at the center explores the intricacies of integrating advanced power generating equipment, such as microturbines and fuel cells, with waste heat activated technologies such as absorption chillers and desiccant systems. The Chesapeake Building, which currently has two CHP systems currently installed, was designed to be a platform for conducting research on advanced energy efficient and environmentally friendly building technology.

The visit started with a lunch at the Rossborough Inn where the British MPs got a chance to talk to Roger Meyer from the Department of Energy, Patricia Garland from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and four University of Maryland graduate students working on the CHP project - Aris Marantan, Matt Cowie, Uta Klingenberger and Lucia Liao. The delegation was interested in the activities and research being conducted at the CHP Integration Test Center. Discussions included technical topics in CHP as well as regulatory issues related to energy efficiency and environmental issues. Other topics discussed included climate and renewable energy issues and the road that lies ahead for legislators in addressing these issues. The visit concluded with a tour of the Chesapeake Building where the delegation had a chance to see the two installed CHP systems up close and ask questions about the design and operation of each system.

For more information regarding the CHP Integration Test Center, please contact Aris Marantan at (301) 403-4477 or visit the CHP website www.enme.umd.edu/ceee/bchp.

Published February 15, 2002