Combined heat and power, CHP: Community strategy

In adopting the report by Mrs María ESTEVAN BOLEA (EPP, E) on the Commission communication on a Community strategy to promote combined heat and power (CHP) Parliament wished to see the proportion of CHP in the Commission's strategy increased from the current 18% to at least 25%. It suggested that the Commission and above all the Member States should introduce administrative and economic measures to boost the combined production of power and heat to supply hot water and heating for domestic purposes. Considering that CHP contributed significantly to reducing the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere by making more efficient use of energy, Parliament considered that the development of these new forms of energy production would constitute the most positive contribution to reducing the greenhouse effect. Parliament also stressed that the electricity market operators must accept as a priority the excess power not consumed by the cogenerator, with auto-producers competing on the market. Parliament also called for: - the granting through the structural funds of aid to Objective 1 regions with a view to increasing energy efficiency, in particular for cogeneration facilities and renewable energies; - cooperation funds granted to third countries in the area of energy to be concentrated on the financing of cogeneration facilities; - electricity system operators as a matter of priority, to accept electricity produced in seawater desalination plants using combined electricity and steam cogeneration cycles thus ensuring that cogenerators producing both electricity and steam at prices determined by competition on the electricity market. �