Minn Post
Summary
About 18 months ago, the operator of downtown St. Paul’s district energy network began work to demonstrate the concept’s potential on a grander scale in the city’s newest neighborhood. When complete, The Heights’ roughly 1,000 homes and 1 million square feet of light industrial space will be heated and cooled by what Ever-Green Energy CEO Luke Gaalswyk called “one of the largest networked geothermal energy systems in the country” at the October 2024 groundbreaking.
A third could serve about 300 homes and a community center at Mount Airy Homes, a St. Paul Public Housing Authority property and District Energy St. Paul customer just north of the Capitol complex.
Mount Airy sits at the edge of the district energy network, about a mile from the main cogeneration plant near the riverfront. The fluid in the network’s hot water loop cools on its journey through the system, making Mount Airy a good site for a supplementary thermal energy source, Gaalswyk said. The complex’s lower loop temperature will also increase the system’s efficiency: It’s easier to heat 50-degree water to 180 degrees than to 250 degrees. (The pressurized loop has a higher boiling point than standing water.)
Continue Reading
#MemberNewsIDEA#Content#EverGreenEnergy#DistrictEnergy