![]() ![]() "The Federal Government has pledged $14 million dollars to install these natural gas boilers that can only burn natural gas for heat," said Joseph Ingrao, an attorney who worked with the Clean Air Council until recently. This angers environmental groups that support the steam loop system because of how easy it would be to use it to cut the city's overall carbon emissions. This despite President Biden's commitment to tackling climate change, and his executive order mandating federal agencies work to limit emissions.īoth Amtrak's 30th Street Station and Independence National Historical Park operated by the National Park Service, which includes the historic Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell Center, have inked deals with the city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works to remove the steam systems and install new natural gas infrastructure. "It enables buildings to get to net zero."īut in Philadelphia, where city officials pledged to reach net zero by 2050, two federal agencies plan to switch from Vicinity Energy's district steam system to natural gas boilers. "District energy is actually a very elegant solution, particularly for cities, campuses, communities, and clusters of buildings," Thornton said. Thornton says switching those systems from fossil fuel to cleaner energy is a more cost-effective way to achieve electrification without overloading the grid. and Canada, while there are thousands more worldwide. ![]() More than 900 of these systems exist in the U.S. "Instead of doing 150 individual buildings, if you can decarbonize the primary supply to a central plant, then you really achieve lower carbon operations at scale," said Rob Thornton, president and CEO of the International District Energy Association. Dozens of colleges have district energy systems in place where the fuel source is getting switched in order to lower a university's carbon footprint. So we become the easy way to decarbonize huge swaths of building space in urban cores."Īnd it's not just cities that can benefit. ![]() No disruption in the operation of the building. "And the building owners don't have to do a thing," said Vicinity Energy CEO Bill DiCroce. In fact the company has begun to do that with the steam loop system it owns in Boston. Vicinity Energy says this highly efficient and flexible system could easily ditch natural gas and replace it with renewable energy or lower carbon fuel to generate that steam. Most people only see this underground network through the residual steam that rises through sidewalk grates. Today it burns natural gas and some waste grease from nearby restaurants to produce the electricity, and uses the waste heat to generate the steam. It switched to burning oil during World War II. The plant originally burned coal that arrived on river barges. "If we can go back in time, there would have been a 60,000-ton coal pile sitting here." "So, when this place was built, like 100 years ago, these boilers ran on coal," Ancona said. It also produces food grade steam that is used to sterilize equipment at nearby hospitals, and cook cold cuts. It now houses modern boilers alongside a highly efficient cogeneration facility that feeds electricity to the grid, while at the same time, uses excess heat to produce the steam that heats Philadelphia buildings. Ancona points to the high-arched ceilings that are lined with tiles, and the building's detailed brickwork, depicting an era when electricity had begun to replace gas lighting in earnest. The plant is a study in contrasts, and illustrates the evolution of electric generation. "It's like a ring of steam where you have a bunch of people connected to that ring taking the steam and using it," said Mike Ancona, operations manager for Vicinity Energy, which owns and operates Philadelphia's steam loop system. Steam travels through 41 miles of pipe to dozens of buildings, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the University of Pennsylvania and the newly built Comcast Towers. In Philadelphia, the steam gets generated at a red brick plant built in 1915, one of the few remaining industrial sites that sits along the Schuylkill River. Today, these systems, which often provide chilled water for cooling as well, are experiencing a renaissance as a potential solution to climate change. Electric companies installed many of these "steam loops" or district energy systems more than 100 years ago in older East Coast cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Across North America, hundreds of downtowns, college campuses and hospitals are heated by steam carried through networks of underground pipes. ![]()
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