An Ancient, Neighborhood-Based Technology could Heat Vancouver

Frances Bula details the district-energy systems (i.e., recycling heat from neighborhood wastewater) already in use in Vancouver and the plans of one developer scale such systems for use in the city's downtown.

Frances Bula reports that 22 buildings around the city already use "district-energy systems," or "neighborhood energy utilities" as they're called by Vancouver. Such systems trap the heat produced by wastewater for reuse in room-heating and hot-water systems. "Compared with arrangements where each building fires its own boiler," writes Bula, "it reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent."

But the current micro-scale of such systems could be about to go big time: "One of the city’s biggest real-estate developers recently announced plans to use a similar model for building out a utility for much of Vancouver’s downtown peninsula."

The developer, Ian Gillespie, says his company, Creative Energy, "will dramatically reduce Vancouver’s overall production of greenhouse gases and go a long way to helping the city meet ambitious environmental goals in its 'Greenest City 2020 Action Plan.'"

Bula's coverage details more of the policy and infrastructure investments that paved the way for the first district-energy systems as well as what it will take for Gillespie to make good on his vision for an overhaul of the city's gas-powered heating infrastructure.