Current Status

This market has invested heavily in CHP beginning more than seventy-five years ago. The first installation in our Gulf Coast region was in 1928 at the Riverwood International Manville/West Monroe Mill, Louisiana.1

Regionally, CHP is found at 20 paper manufacturing sites located in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.3 Approximately 9% of the regional CHP installations are in this market.1

For a listing of CHP installations by state, go to Combined Heat and Power Installation Database.

Nationwide, CHP capacity for this market is estimated at more than 12,136 MW.2 This figure accounts for 15% of the total CHP capacity for the nation (see chart below).


National CHP capacity in the paper market resides primarily in larger system sizes. Systems greater than 20 MW units make up 92% of the national capacity (see table below).


*Note: Current capacity shown here (8553 MW) is smaller than that reported above (12,136 MW). Figures were published in 2000 and 2005, respectively. This lack of consistency results from an increase in CHP capacity between publication dates, and from a more comprehensive database.5 Nonetheless, large CHP system sizes continue to dominate capacity.

Select Case Studies, to see how others in this market have implemented CHP.

Regionally, the paper manufacturing market had a CHP capacity of 935 MW. This market represents 4% of the total regional CHP capacity.3


Paper manufacturing makes up a smaller percentage of the regional CHP capacity, than it does for the nation. In Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, CHP capacity is dominated by the chemicals and refining industries,3 nonetheless, Paper's CHP capacity is still very large.

• Large capacity systems (50-90 MW), although moderate sized systems (4-13 MW) are also found.
• Prime movers are boiler/steam turbines.
• Fueled by natural gas or waste materials, such as spent liquor solids or wood waste.
• Presently, none of the installations sell excess power to the utilities.