Assessment of the Technical Potential for Micro-Cogeneration in Small Commerical Buildings across the United States: Preprint

This paper presents an assessment of the technical potential for micro-cogeneration in small commercial buildings throughout the United States. The cogeneration devices are simulated with the computer program EnergyPlus using models developed by Annex 42, a working group of the International Energy Agency's Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Community Systems (IEA/ECBCS). Although the Annex 42 models were developed for residential applications, this study applies them to small commercial buildings, assumed to have a total floor area of 500 m2 or less. The potential for micro-cogeneration is examined for the entire existing stock of small U.S. commercial buildings using a bottom-up method based on 1,236 EnergyPlus models