Wood pellet powered Stirling engine micro-CHP. Now!
Wood pellet powered Stirling engine micro-CHP is now a commercial product in Europe! This very strategic product is made by KWB of Austria, who currently refuse to sell into the North American market.
Prof. Jerry Cherney of Cornell University learned of this product last week and shared it with me today at Power Shift. This commercially available wood pellet fired micro-CHP system validates the subtitle of my 2006 Grass Energy Working Paper.
For more, see: http://www.stirlingpowermodule.com/
“The combination of the SPM module with a KWB pellet heating system ensures that wood, a renewable and domestic energy source, is optimally used for the production of heat AND energy, also in single-family homes. This power station makes it possible to produce a significant part of the annual energy requirement of an average single-family home by using the energy from a pellet heating unit.”
While this product is NOT offered in the US today, it clearly proves the point and shows what we could be doing!
This is a powerful concept and would enable us to build a bioenergy powered micro-grtrid solution for Vermont! Or we could start building out Al Gore’s Electranet today.
[Photo credit: KWB web site.]
6 comments Jock Gill | Climate Change, Community, Economy, Energy, Technology, Vermont
Great post, I have learned a great deal from monitoring your posts. thank you.
Do you know the reason why this wood pellet product is not available in North America?
I think the danger is that if products like these – which can clearly help to meet the energy requirements of domestic households – are kept off the market then the popularity if wood pellets as an energy source could start to wane.
If you buy a pellet stove, prepare yourself for some manual labor.
I agree with Stove Wood Pellets but just because it isn’t available on the market doesn’t mean you can’t order it out of country right? I’d love to have one of these bad boys.
The cost of attaining a UL listing is far to high for manufacturers of most wood pellet stoves and apparatus. If you compare the technology available in Europe to that available in the US you get angry. As the market for these products increases in the US we will see a far larger offering of all the various wood pellet apparatus including this cogen unit from Australia. However for the time being, you need big cash to get the necessary safety ratings.
Hello, I am coordinator of regional bioenergy program in Kainuu (Finland). I have a question concerning your micro CHP -unit. It is: What is the efficiency of enigine? (Electricity and heat). Is it suitable for single house?