NPR
Summary
Like in many American cities, Denver's largest source of climate pollution is its buildings. Powering, heating and cooling the city's skyscrapers takes a lot of fossil fuels.
Now, the city is trying a greener solution. It plans to heat and cool a cluster of large downtown buildings using a combination of water, the heat of the Earth — and sewage.
Denver will pilot what's called a thermal energy network. Similar networks already exist on campuses and in some cities around the world. If it works here, it could set an example for how to decarbonize a dense, downtown core in the United States.
Most people don't think of sewage as a source of energy, says Dan Freedman, director of technology and innovation at Metro Water Recovery, the city's wastewater utility.
But taking showers, doing laundry and, yes, going to the bathroom generate warm wastewater brimming with thermal energy — which becomes heat.
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