924th largest plant in California · 6680th nationally
San Jose Cogeneration is a natural gas power plant in California with a nameplate capacity of 6.0 MW. It generates roughly 26.2k MWh per year — enough to power about 2,498 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 50% puts it in the middle range — running steadily but not full-time. At 860 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits above the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.
| Plant Name | San Jose Cogeneration |
|---|---|
| Operator | San Jose State University Fclts Dev &ops |
| City | San Jose |
| County | Santa Clara County |
| State | California |
| ZIP | 95192 |
| Coordinates | 37.33611, -121.87833 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GEN1 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 6.0 MW | Operating | 1984 |
| CO₂ | 11.3k metric tons |
|---|---|
| NOₓ | 31 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 860 lb/MWh |
Annual totals and CO₂ rate reported by EPA eGRID for 2023. Reference averages are approximate U.S.-wide figures from the same dataset.
| NERC Region | WECC |
|---|---|
| Balancing Authority | California Independent System Operator |
Natural gas plants are the workhorse of the modern grid. Combined-cycle units achieve very high efficiency and can ramp up and down quickly to balance variable renewables. They emit roughly half the CO₂ per MWh of coal and far less of other pollutants, but they still release upstream methane during fuel extraction.