To generate electricity efficiently, you don’t always need a technologically advanced large-scale power plant. Thanks to distributed generation, efficiency can also be enhanced on a smaller scale. The technological options range from heat pumps and micro wind turbines to small-scale combined heat and power (CHP) systems like the WhisperGen.

E.ON UK has established partnerships with a number of micro CHP technology developers with the aim of assessing products suitable for a range of customers. In addition to the WhisperGen product, E.ON is trialing the Energetix Genlec, a wall mounted unit, as well as an advanced Fuel Cell from Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL) which promises to deliver electricity to the householder at exceptionally high efficiency.

Heat pumps work like refrigerators in reverse, drawing heat from their surroundings (outside air or the soil). Heat pumps are highly energy efficient, have a long operating lifetime, consume little energy and emit significantly less carbon dioxide than conventional heating units. Many E.ON market and business units offer their customers the full range of heat-pump services, from advice to installation. Heat pumps are increasingly popular among industrial and commercial customers as well as at public facilities like swimming pools.

Solar power is also an important form of distributed generation. In 2007, we launched a joint venture with Bielefeld-based Schüco International with the aim of making this technology more cost-effective for our customers. Schüco, the world’s leading manufacturer of building envelopes, has developed materials that integrate solar cells into the glass and steel facades of office buildings. The new joint venture company, Malibu GmbH & Co. KG, is based in Saxony-Anhalt in northeast Germany and is expected to begin production in mid-2008.