Typically, for a gas-fired plant the fully installed cost per kW electrical is around
€400/kW (US$577), which is comparable with large central power stations.

The EU has actively incorporated cogeneration into its energy
policy via the CHP Directive. In September 2008 at a hearing of
the European Parliament’s Urban Lodgment Intergroup, Energy
Commissioner Andris Piebalgs is quoted as saying, “security of
supply really starts with energy efficiency.” Energy efficiency
and cogeneration are recognized in the opening paragraphs of
the European Union’s Cogeneration Directive 2004/08/EC. This
directive intends to support cogeneration and establish a
method for calculating cogeneration abilities per country. The
development of cogeneration has been very uneven over the
years and has been dominated throughout the last decades by
national circumstances.

The European Union generates 11% of its electricity using
cogeneration. However, there is large difference between
Member States with variations of the energy savings between
2% and 60%.

Europe has the three countries with the world’s most intensive
cogeneration economies: Denmark, the Netherlands and
Finland. Of the 28.46 TWh of electrical power generated by
conventional thermal power plants in Finland in 2012, 81.80%
was cogeneration.

Other European countries are also making great efforts to
increase efficiency.

Germany reported that at present, over 50% of the country’s total
electricity demand could be provided through cogeneration.

So far, Germany has set the target to double its electricity cogeneration
from 12.5% of the country’s electricity to 25% of the country’s
electricity by 2020 and has passed supporting legislation accordingly.

The UK is also actively supporting combined heat and power. In light of UK’s
goal to achieve a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, the
government has set the target to source at least 15% of its government
electricity use from CHP by 2010. Other UK measures to encourage CHP
growth are financial incentives, grant support, a greater regulatory
framework, and government leadership and partnership.

According to the IEA 2008 modeling of cogeneration
expansion for the G8 countries, the expansion of
cogeneration in France, Germany, Italy and the UK alone
would effectively double the existing primary fuel savings by
2030.
This would increase Europe’s savings from today’s 155.69
Twh to 465 Twh in 2030. It would also result in a 16% to 29%
increase in each country’s total cogenerated electricity by
2030.