The U.S. Department of Energy's Small Modular Systems Project

Small, modular biopower systems have the potential to help in supplying electric power to the more than 2.5 billion people, who currently live without it in the world. The potential exists, because most of these people live in areas where large amounts of biomass are available for fuel. Small systems, those with rated capacities of 5 megawatts and smaller, could potentially provide power at the village level to serve many of these people. Small biomass systems also have a great potential market in industrialised regions of the world in distributed applications. These applications consist of power generation attached to the transmission and distribution grid close to where the consumer uses electricity; some might be owned by the consumers themselves and would be connected to the power grid on the customer side of the electric meter. Both of these applications have large potential markets both inside the United States and abroad. Working with industry, the U.S. Department of Energy's Small, Modular Systems Project is developing small biopower systems that are efficient and clean. The project consists of feasibility studies, prototype demonstrations, and proceeding to full system integration based on a business strategy for commercialisation. Phase I of the three-phase project focused on the feasibility of developing cost-effective technologies and identifying the potential markets for each of the systems. (orig.)