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Duluth awarded $700,000 grant to study using wastewater to heat buildings

By District Energy posted 05-09-2023 22:36

  

Star Tribune

Summary

Duluth has been awarded a $700,000 grant by the Department of Energy to develop a geothermal district heating system using waste from Western Lake Superior Sanitary District to heat buildings in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

The system would ideally meet all of the heating loads of properties in the area, according to the project proposal. The city is one of 11 communities to get similar funding to create a design that could potentially be picked by the Department of Energy to receive up to 90% of the implementation costs.

"We hope that the project will offer a way to both decarbonize hundreds of buildings using geothermal energy investments, and also stabilize heating fuel prices into the future," Duluth Mayor Emily Larson said Tuesday afternoon at a news conference in the neighborhood's Pocket Park on West Superior Street.

"We hope that the project will offer a way to both decarbonize hundreds of buildings using geothermal energy investments, and also stabilize heating fuel prices into the future," Duluth Mayor Emily Larson said Tuesday afternoon at a news conference in the neighborhood's Pocket Park on West Superior Street.

Ken Smith, CEO of Ever-Green Energy, said this technology works by using heat pumps to recover wasted thermal energy — a concept that has been tested in China, Finland and Sweden, but not yet in the United States. The St. Paul company also worked with the city to swap out steam heat for a closed-loop hot water system during the reconstruction of East Superior Street. Part of the upcoming planning process, Smith said, would require figuring out how to tie these two different neighborhood systems together.

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