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Proposal would heat, cool Minneapolis food hall, apartments with groundwater

By District Energy posted 02-03-2020 11:09

  

Energy News Network

Summary

A Minneapolis developer wants to tap into aquifers to heat and cool a planned food hall and apartment complex on the city’s eastern edge.

If successful, the project could offer a model as Minneapolis looks to reduce its reliance on natural gas — the dominant source of heating in the notoriously cold city and also its largest source of carbon emissions.

Wall Companies is working with Ever-Green Energy and Underground Energy on an aquifer thermal system for its 17-acre Malcolm Yards project, part of the emerging Towerside Innovation District near the University of Minnesota.

Aquifer thermal energy uses a system of wells and heat exchangers to store and recover thermal energy underground. In the summer, heat is extracted from buildings and transferred to an aquifer. In the winter, the system is reversed, with warm water pulled up and circulated to heat buildings.

The concept is common in Denmark and other parts of Europe but relatively unknown in the United States, with few projects in operation and none on the scale being considered for the Minneapolis project.

Ever-Green Energy, which also manages St. Paul’s District Energy heating and cooling network, has advised several geothermal exchange proposals around the country, including San Francisco’s Mission Rock development, which would use bay water to heat and cool 2.7 million square feet of apartments, offices and commercial space.

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