CPI Fact Sheet

CPI Defintions

Distributed Generation
This is a model of power generation and distribution that calls for small amounts of power to be generated in a variety of locations across a region. As opposed to the model most often used of centralized generation, which is one very large facility that serves the entire region.

Community Scale
This scale will vary from facility to facility depending on the (a) nearby thermal needs (See Combined Heat and Power below), and/or (b) the energy needs of the community. This means the facilities will range from less than 1MW to 20MW, give or take. Compare this to most coal facilities which are between 500MW and 1500MW.

Baseload Power
This is everyday power. In other words, the consistent amount of power needed to satisfy the average needs of consumers every day of the year. As opposed to peak power, which is the additional power needed to satisfy energy consumption peaks during the dog days of summer. Baseload power is more valuable, and can only come from ‘dispatchable sources’ which can be turned off and turned on at a moments notice. This is not the case with energy sources like wind and solar.

Combined Heat and Power
Just as it sounds, this is utilizing both heat and power. When you combust something like coal or biomass, steam is created which turns a turbine, which generates electricity. The leftover steam, or thermal energy is very usable energy. Large power plants, because of their remote locations and massive scale, cannot utilize this steam, and therefore use extra energy to pump water to cool the steam. But a small scale facility could be located such that this steam becomes a marketable commodity – and thereby increasing the efficiency of the fuel from 35% to nearly 90%.

Herbaceous Crop
This is a term used to represent the material that comes from crops grown specifically as biomass fuel (as opposed to corn, which is grown either as food, or as biomass, or both). The most commonly referred to crop grown for is switchgrass, although there are other types of native warm season grasses similar to switchgrass that could be good crops, like miscanthus or sorghum. Fast growing trees like willow and poplar can also be planted and harvested in short rotations of less than three years.

Woody Residues
Every year millions of tons of wood are sustainably harvested in Virginia supporting many longstanding industries. This logging leaves behind residues in the forest floor. Currently there is no use for this residue. Additionally, when the trees go through the sawmill, another portion is left behind as mill residue. Similarly, there is little use for this residue. Woody residue is often used to describe the unmerchantable wood left behind in forests and on the mill floor.

To find out more about CPI, click one of the links below:


• CPI Home
• CPI Benefits

• CPI Presentation (PDF)
• The Municipal Biomass Business Plan (PDF)