The Baxi group is among the winners honoured at the Combined Heat and Power Association (CHPA) Conference and Awards.
For its work in developing the micro-CHP unit Baxi Ecogen, as a direct replacement for a wall hung gas boiler, Baxi won the Innovation category at the CHPA awards, held on November 19.

Baxi Ecogen's engine generates up to 1kWh of electricity for use in the home. Field trials carried out in homes with different energy demands, where the units provided heating and hot water in some cases for more than a year, show the units consistently producing two thirds of the households’ electricity requirements, of which one third was used in the home and one third exported back to the national grid. The Ecogen boiler could make substantial savings on energy bills and could cut CO2 emissions by 20%

Mark Kelly, CEO Baxi Group UK and Ireland, said: “Our extensive field trials have shown that Baxi Ecogen is a natural successor to the conventional boiler – as a direct replacement for a wall hung gas boiler, it is readily accepted by the householder'.

He added: “We are pleased that the government has recognised the importance of micro-CHP as a microgeneration system and has included it, along with other products such as solar and wind turbines, in the Energy Bill.”

The Baxi group recently signed a preferred supplier agreement with British Gas to distribute Baxi Ecogen micro CHP units to British Gas customers from the second quarter of 2009. The agreement could generate revenue for the group of up to £40m per annum.

Baxi chief executive Martyn Coffey said: 'We also see good opportunities in other international markets to roll out the Ecogen technology. With recent rises in energy costs and with governments in many countries increasing regulation because of climate change we see strong potential for this product.'

As part of a cost-cutting exercise, Baxi is looking to move its production from other European countries to the UK, largely due to the falling value of the pound. The pound's weakness has pushed up costs at its European production facilities and lead it to paying higher costs when importing products. Preston is currently the home of Baxi's UK manufacturing base.

The CHPA Awards judges recognised Baxi for building on product innovation to make major progress towards reaching market with a domestic micro-CHP technology.

The other award winners honored at the CHPA Awards Gala Dinner are:

-Sustainable Development Award, presented to Birmingham Heartlands Hospital and Ener-G Combined Power Ltd for itheir trigeneration installation at an acute hospital.

-Community Award, presented to Sustain for its installation of CHP and renewables at the Nabarro Court sheltered housing scheme in Nottingham.

-Champion Award, presented to Tesco for its significant investment in CHP and trigeneration and commitment to deploying both proven and innovative technologies across their stores.

-The President’s award for emerging talent, presented to Katie Gent of Sustain for her work developing a CHP calculator to encourage and enable the take up of CHP among developers of new build projects.

-The President’s Award for Services to CHP was presented to Michael King, (chairman of London Energy Partnership’s Community Heating/CHP task group), for persuasively making the case for CHP and district energy to government officials, local community groups, politicians, the media and others.

In recognition of achievements in the CHP industry, the CHPA has re-introduced its CHPA Conference and Awards after a break of seven years. During the day seminars and speeches from leading figures including the Energy and Climate Change minister Mike O'Brien, preceded the evening's awards ceremony.

A spokesman for the CHPA, Peter Smith said 'I am pleased to report that both events were the most popular we have ever had, with 230 delegates for the conference and 400 for the dinner'.