Blogs

Why McKinstry leader Matt Allen is betting on clean nuclear, geothermal and smarter buildings

By District Energy posted an hour ago
GeekWire Summary Matt Allen wasn’t sure he wanted to pursue a career at McKinstry , the Seattle-based company his grandfather co-founded in 1960. The business started with plumbing and piping, evolving into a construction and energy services firm with national reach. But after joining in 2012, Allen began appreciating the impact McKinstry has helping customers find affordable, planet-friendly solutions for their operations. It could be as simple as replacing an old, natural gas boiler with a high-efficiency heat pump, Allen said, “but you feel like you’re part of that customer’s journey, and our societal journey, to get to a carbon-free environment.” ...

The real question about data centres

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
Resource Works Summary Data centres are not a passing fad or a niche concern for technologists. They are the physical backbone of the digital economy. Every search, cloud file, online medical record, banking transaction and AI application relies on buildings full of servers, cooling systems, electrical equipment and skilled workers. The cloud was never really in the sky. It has always been on the ground. Engineer Matthew Klippenstein explores one underappreciated possibility: data centres can produce useful heat. If designed properly and placed near district energy systems, the waste heat from servers can help warm nearby buildings. That can reduce natural ...

Vancouver turns sewage heat into renewable energy for buildings

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
Times of India Summary A new Times of India feature highlights Vancouver’s False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU) , which captures heat that would normally disappear down showers, sinks and toilets and uses it to provide space heating and hot water to buildings across the district . The city-owned system, originally developed to serve the 2010 Olympic Village , extracts heat from wastewater and uses large heat pumps to raise its temperature before distributing the energy through a neighborhood-scale thermal network. The system has since expanded beyond the Olympic Village to serve buildings in Southeast False Creek, Mount Pleasant and ...

Transforming Britain’s Old Coalfields Into Clean Energy Sources

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
Reasons to Be Cheerful Summary Although Gateshead’s coal industry no longer exists, its heritage lives on. Indeed, at a Lanchester Wines warehouse in east Gateshead, Chris Smith likes to think of himself as following his grandfather underground. His granddad was a miner, but Smith, Lanchester’s energy and renewables manager, now helps pull a different kind of energy from the same earth: heat from warm water flooding the town’s old coal workings. “I’m here almost doing the same, just in a different way,” he says. “Still kinda going back down the mines … and extracting heat and energy.” He pauses, then smiles at the symmetry of it. “I do find it quite poetic.” ...

Chinese cities embrace eco-friendly district cooling to beat summer heat

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
Reuters Connect Summary A recent feature highlights Chinese cities increasingly deploying water-source district cooling to address extreme summer heat . Examples include systems making use of river water in cities including Wuhan and Chongqing. Continue Reading #News #DistrictCooling

How PACT Engineering could cool cities with 4°C ocean water

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
Utilities Middle East Summary Far below the ocean surface lies a largely untapped source of cooling that could help coastal cities address three increasingly urgent infrastructure demands at once. A technical study by PACT Engineering Chairman and Technical Director, Arshak Toufenkjian, proposes drawing cold seawater from approximately 800m deep to support district cooling, data centre cooling and reverse osmosis desalination through a single integrated system. After absorbing heat from the data centre, the seawater could reach 18°C or higher before being directed to the SWRO plant. Toufenkjian notes that conventional data centres may use 12°C ...

Can Paris’s Nature-Based Approach Attenuate Extreme Heat?

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
Santa Barbara Independent Summary This summer has been blistering hot across Europe, accompanied by a spate of wildfires. Not surprisingly, these record heat waves are pushing people toward air-conditioning. France, especially Paris, is embracing a different path, one seeking nature-based solutions. As far back as the 1990s, Paris started installing a district cooling system using a network of pipes to carry chilly Seine River water. The initial phase was 75 miles of pipe delivering chilled water to museums, hospitals, schools, and offices. Before this water flows back into the river, it is re-cooled via a heat exchanger where the chilled inlet water runs ...

ARUP Advances Major New Development with District Cooling

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
WebWire Summary Arup and AtkinsRéalis have been selected to support the next phase of Hong Kong's Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen and Lau Fau Shan New Development Areas, which are expected to include roughly 50,000 homes and support 43,000 jobs. District cooling is among the sustainable infrastructure systems already being developed for the area, highlighting Hong Kong's continued integration of centralized cooling into large-scale urban development. Continue Reading #MemberNewsIDEA #ARUP #DistrictCooling

Cornell’s Lake Source Cooling system cuts cooling energy use by 85%

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
Times of India Summary A recent Times of India feature highlights Cornell University’s Lake Source Cooling (LSC) system, which has been providing district cooling to the Ithaca campus since 2000. The system was developed as Cornell sought to replace aging conventional chillers and eliminate ozone-depleting CFC refrigerants. Instead of relying primarily on mechanical refrigeration, Cornell draws 39°F water from about 250 feet below Cayuga Lake, roughly two miles offshore. The lake water passes through heat exchangers that cool a separate closed-loop chilled-water system serving Cornell and Ithaca High School; the lake water and campus water never ...

Data Center Heats 9,000 Homes... How Meta Established Its Data Hub in Denmark

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
The Asia Business Daily Summary The key feature of the Meta Odense Data Center is its eco-friendly infrastructure utilizing a resource recycling system. Instead of simply discarding the heat generated in the server rooms during operation, the data center captures it and repurposes it for local district heating through a heat recovery system. The waste heat produced by the data center’s heat exchangers is transferred to a heat pump system. Large-scale ammonia heat pumps increase the temperature to a district heating network-appropriate range of 70 to 75 degrees Celsius. The annual volume of waste heat captured from the server rooms and provided free of charge ...

'Essential piece of the puzzle': Heat network funding revamp could drive £17bn of investment by 2035

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
Business Green Summary Energy UK and the Heat Networks Industry Council are pushing a new economic model for heat networks, arguing that an initial £1 billion in public investment , combined with a Regulated Asset Base-style model, could mobilize roughly £17 billion of investment by 2035 . The report frames heat networks not simply as a decarbonization tool but as infrastructure supporting local economic growth and energy-system flexibility. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating

Virginia directs state DOE to accelerate data-center waste-heat use — including district heating

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
Virginia Law Summary Virginia law directs the state Department of Energy to identify opportunities to beneficially use data-center waste heat and specifically calls out district heating systems as potential users. The department is also tasked with connecting data centers with heat users, studying international best practices, evaluating infrastructure costs and developing policy recommendations. A report is due September 1, 2026. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating #DataCenter

SP’s Mar­ina Bay dis­trict cool­ing net­work to expand into Anson, Enggor, Have­lock areas

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
The Edge Singapore Summary SP Group will expand its 20-yearold Mar­ina Bay dis­trict cool­ing net­work to the Anson, Enggor and Have­lock areas, with the earli­est addi­tions ready next year. The net­work cur­rently serves 28 build­ings through a 5km pip­ing net­work. Anson Centre and Ascott Shenton Way Singa­pore will join the dis­trict cool­ing net­work when com­pleted in 2027 and 2029 respect­ively, accord­ing to an Aug 14 announce­ment by SP. Continue Reading #News #District Cooling Thermal Energy Storage and Turbine Inlet Cooling #DistrictCooling

Grid bottlenecks push businesses toward larger onsite power systems, Capstone says

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
Reuters Summary Rising demand for onsite power among businesses struggling to secure capacity from strained American utilities is propelling ​orders for larger generation blocks at Capstone Energy+ CEO Vince ‌Canino said in an interview with Reuters. As grid constraints grow, businesses are increasingly viewing onsite generation as a way to secure power for expansion rather ​than simply a means of reducing energy costs. Capstone, which ​provides microturbine and behind-the-meter power systems for commercial and ⁠industrial customers, is seeing demand from sectors including healthcare and ​is pursuing data-center projects. "Today's discussions ...

Romania's Electrica signs contract to build cogeneration plant in Craiova

By District Energy posted 18 hours ago
See News Summary Romanian power supplier and distributor Electrica said on Monday that it has signed a contract to develop a high-efficiency cogeneration plant powered by natural gas internal combustion engines in the southern city of Craiova, Dolj county. The plant will supply thermal energy to Craiova's centralised district heating system (SACET), replacing an existing coal-based source, as well as electricity to the National Power System, Electrica [ BSE:EL ] said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating #CHP

Data centres for district energy

By District Energy posted yesterday
Resource Works Summary Two new data centres have been proposed for Vancouver. The announcement was promptly drowned out by objections to it . Lost in the noise: the part where they help the city hit its climate targets. How? The waste heat the servers throw off would be steered into two of the city’s district energy systems, displacing natural gas and the greenhouse gas emissions that come with it. Developers have been doing exactly this in Europe for years—especially in Scandinavia, where district energy is common. Closer to home, two data centres already feed Toronto’s Deep Lake Water Cooling System , which serves the downtown core. Continue ...

Ever-Green Energy: Environmental, Social, and Governance

By District Energy posted 4 days ago
Ever-Green Energy Summary Ever-Green's ESG commitment extends throughout our business and operations, building from the company values that guide our everyday and long-term actions. Environmental stewardship, operational excellence, and a commitment to transpar ency drive us to publish our ESG reports on a voluntary basis . This helps us assess company progre ss and growth opportunities while providin g important information for our customers, partners, and stakeholders. We formally adopted a company ESG Policy that serves as the foundation for future company actions and guides our annual reporting ...

Cordia Names Maria DeMuro Chief Financial Officer

By District Energy posted 4 days ago
Cordia Summary Cordia, a leading energy solutions company, announced that Maria DeMuro has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Since joining Cordia, Maria has been a key leader within the company’s finance department, helping to strengthen financial operations and providing strategic guidance across the business. Prior to joining Cordia, Maria built an accomplished career spanning Wall Street and corporate finance. She joined the company from Dominion Energy, where she held leadership roles in corporate development, finance, and investor relations, bringing extensive experience in financial strategy, planning, and business growth. “Maria has ...

Frederick S. Moses Named Senior Business Development Leader at CHA

By District Energy posted 4 days ago
CHA Summary CHA announces Frederick S. Moses has been named Vice President and Senior Business Development Leader. Frederick is based in Houston, TX, and will support our energy clients and expand CHA’s presence in the Southeast. Frederick has nearly 30 years of wide-ranging experience in environmental services, energy, and infrastructure. He is a hands-on sales leader with a proven record of managing and growing a strategic account portfolio across energy, utilities, power, technology, and infrastructure with a focus on go-to-market architecture and enterprise value creation. Frederick earned his MBA and Bachelor of Management from the University of ...

Nationwide Boiler Strengthens Leadership Team with Internal Promotions

By District Energy posted 4 days ago
Nationwide Boiler Incorporated Summary Nationwide Boiler Inc., known for temporary and permanent industrial boilers, emissions control, and custom controls solutions, is strengthening its leadership team with three internal promotions that reflect the company's commitment to employee development, technical excellence, and long-term growth. First, David Spain has been promoted from Director of Engineering to Vice President of Sales. A licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.), David has been an integral part of Nationwide Boiler for 27 years and has played a significant role in many of the company's largest equipment sales, complex projects, and innovations. ...