Is there a river or stream nearby?

Sounds like you should be cooking with gas or bio gas.

May be laundry could be done by hand as part of the training?

Its always seemed crazy to me that people burn gas and oil to heat their houses when they could provide electric as well. All energy use ends up as heat. A N.Z. company have a product called wisper gen. Unfortunately for the British PowerGen have bough the UK licence . I believe that you can buy them in ireland !.

I think it is the "commercial kitchen and laundry" that is the give away!

I would try to find the lowest possible energy consuming appliances and work practices that I could to try to reduce the peak demand to more reasonable levels as a first step. Can you provide any sort of breakdown of the figures?

Hi thanks for your interest I will try and answer all your questions...

Tony - hydro (and wind and PV) power have been ruled out on practical and environmental reasons. I don't think asking guests to wash their own laundry in the river would go down well - we are more luxury 'eco-chic' than DIY 'eco-geek'!

As we are using biomass supplemented with solar HW panels for heating and hot water, if I can find a small enough biomass CHP, Howdytom, that would be ideal, although I have been told there is nothing suitable on the market as my needs are TOO small. I would hate to lose the biomass for H&HW as it is local, organic and cheap hence looking for the most cost/environmentally efficient alternative to providing electricity without a grid connection. I will check out your suggestions, though and I understand smaller biomass CHP units are being developed.

Ted and Barry, I agree 70kw seems a high electrical load, it probably is! When we did a feasibility study we arrived at this following a series of detailed calcs and breakdown of energy usage for the energy-efficient building design, appliance specification and operational efficiencies but essentially this is worst case scenario with full occupancy and sizing to meet peaks. We will not be using anywhere near this level most of the time, could probably get away with less but I prefer to have the larger capacity just in case...

Assuming I have exhausted all options and reduced demand as much as possible, but still need a generator to produce 70kw - what should I consider and what would you recommend?

Just to fill you in, I am in southern spain - up to 60% grants available for biomass and solar power but not PV, which worked out prohibitively expensive.

Regards,
Geegee.

Geegee, this high electrical consumption?, you have taken diversity into account? With this level of consumption you would be on a 3 phase supply in the UK.
Frank

Hi, Chucky, I assume by 'diversity' you mean diverse demand according to season, lows and peaks, daily patterns etc., if so the answer is yes, but if not...?

We are catering for 20-30 persons plus a house for us, so maybe the 70kw doesn't look so bad in those terms, I do trust the engineer, he is one of the leaders in sustainable engineering over here, but you guys have still got me thinking that he must have overspecified! I guess we can always consume less but we can't consume more if we undersize the kit...

Nobody mentions, so presumably would not recommend LPG as a possible gen fuel??? I hear its cleaner and quieter with easier fuel storage, BUT is it as cost effective to buy and run as bio/diesel? Woud this be worth considering?

I think the conclusion you have helped me reach, subject to any last-minute votes for LPG, is a diesel 3-phase generator, ideally bio-diesel-compatible for when the stuff finally arrives locally. At least you have answered my original question, is it feasible?! Many thanks to all.
geegee x

http://www.ecpower.co.uk/pdf/Abbeyfields.pdf
take a look at this site, using CHP to generate 60kw electricty plus the by product of any electric generator.... Heat . 130kw of it free, if you need the electric use the heat !.