Bloomberg
Summary
A network of underground pipes has pumped steam into a spattering of Manhattan buildings for more than 140 years, quietly powering their heating and cooling systems with little fanfare, save for the occasional orange steam stack dotting the island’s streets.
Now, as the biggest US city seeks to curb its carbon emissions, that 106-mile subterranean network delivering 370-degree vapor to a small subsect of New York’s skyline may have a bigger role to play.
The system, operated by New York-area energy provider and utility Consolidated Edison Inc., delivers about 15 billion pounds of steam every year from the southern tip of Manhattan all the way up to the 90s near the upper half of Central Park. It’s one of hundreds of century-old steam systems still operating across the US in dense downtowns as well as at mega-facilities like college campuses and airports — and by far the country’s biggest.
Many of the US’s other systems, sometimes called “steam loops,” are also working to decarbonize. Vicinity Energy Inc., which operates systems in a dozen US cities, has committed to electrifying its entire portfolio by 2050 — including in the greater Boston area, where its steam pipe system delivers heat to some 70 million square-feet of building space. The company recently installed an industrial-scale electric boiler at its combined heat and power generation facility in Cambridge, what it’s deemed a critical step to producing carbon-free steam. It also plans to add a massive heat pump that will harvest thermal energy from the Charles River.
“Systems in place are continuously being modernized, optimized and updated,” said Rob Thornton, president and CEO of the International District Energy Association, an industry group for suppliers of energy services to buildings. “A plant can integrate a series of technologies like electric boilers, heat pumps, thermal storage and integrating renewables.”
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