At the request of the European Commission's Directorate General for Energy (DG ENER), the Institute for Energy and Transport of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has recently produced a number of scientific and technical reports into cogeneration of heat and power, district heating and cooling and other related issues.

These detailed studies show that by utilising the heat normally unused as a by-product of industrial and power generation processes in large industrial facilities and conventional thermal power plants, cogeneration is an effective method of raising the efficiency of electricity and heat production and provides a cost-effective way to achieve primary energy savings, reduce carbon emissions and energy imports.

More information can be found in the following reports:

1. A comprehensive background report on district heating and cooling potentials
2. A report on the implementation of the Cogeneration Directive
3. An analysis of the European heating and cooling market
4. A report on the state of the art in electricity-only, heat-only and cogeneration technologies
5. An analysis of the energy savings potential by using state-of-the-art technology in the power sector
6. An analysis of the potential for energy savings in the power transmission sector