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GLASE 2023 Webinar Series
Controlled Environment Agriculture is an energy intensive industry that can achieve many societal goals, though it requires significant energy resources for lighting, heating, humidifying/dehumidifying and cooling. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) has long been heavily leveraged by Europeans to integrate CEA with the energy grid in a much more sustainable and environmentally sensitive way. With increasing energy costs and emissions reduction mandates and resilience needs growing, CEA and CHP combine to optimize food production with energy production, resulting in increased efficiency, lower emissions, and improved facilities, as well as grid resilience. This presentation will provide an overview of how CHP integrates with CEA and will discuss the CHP project development process, including cost, funding sources, and permitting.
Thomas Bourgeois is the Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Northeast CHP (Combined Heat and Power) Technical Assistance Partnership based at Pace University.
Tom has researched and written extensively on the market conditions, market potential, and regulatory, market and technical barriers to microgrids, CHP, distributed generation, demand response, and renewable energy. He served as co-chair of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning’s Distributed Generation (DG) Working Group, from March 2012 – June 2013, and has provided testimony to multiple New York agencies on energy related matters. Tom has been principal investigator or contributing author for more than a dozen research studies performed for such organizations as New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA), U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Labs, Argonne National Labs, and National Association of State Energy Offices. In 2008, Tom was recipient of the CHP Champion Award, presented by the U.S. CHP Association, the trade association for the CHP industry. Tom has been contributing author on numerous briefs and other submissions to the Public Service Commission in New York and the Department of Public Utilities in New Jersey.
Tom holds a Masters in Regional Planning from University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and has completed all Ph.D. coursework and qualifying examinations in Managerial Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI, Troy NY).
Gearoid Foley has worked for the past three decades in the construction, HVAC and onsite power industries. He has collaborated with the Department of Energy, various public utility and state energy agencies, project developers, energy service companies and major equipment manufacturers among others.
His experience includes new technology demonstration, applications engineering, project management and policy development relating to on-site power generation, energy efficiency, microgrids and energy resiliency. Mr. Foley has presented papers and given seminars at national and regional conferences for multiple organizations.
Mr. Foley founded Integrated CHP Systems Corp. in 2003 which provides consulting services to the on-site energy industry. He is a founding member of the US CHPA, Programs Committee Chair of ASHRAE’s Combined Heat & Power System’s technical committee and is the New Jersey Director and a Senior Technical Advisor for DOE’s CHP Technical Assistance Partnership. He coauthored the 2015 ASHRAE CHP Design Guide as well as a recently published book entitled ‘Sustainable On-Site CHP Systems’.
