KSC is considering the use of gas microturbines at some sites or buildings. The capture of waste heat for hot water or steam loads can yield microturbine efficiencies above 80 percent. Microturbines are typically available in sizes as low as 30 kW. Several microturbines may be configured together for capacities as high as 10 MW. Microturbines may also be used in “trigen” applications, where the waste heat off the turbine is used to drive an absorption chiller(s) to provide building cooling as well.

To determine buildings that may be the best candidates for fuel cell and microturbine application at KSC, buildings with high coincident electrical and hot water load factors will need to be reviewed.