Tag: District
The POWER Interview: Vicinity CEO Discusses District Energy
The post The POWER Interview: Vicinity CEO Discusses District Energy appeared first on POWER Magazine.
The rise of distributed, or decentralized, power generation has been supported by district energy, the generation from facilities and associated distribution networks supplying steam or hot water, chilled water, and electricity for heating and cooling to millions of square feet of building space across the U.S. and around the globe. District energy is among several focus areas for POWER’s Distributed Energy Conference, which this year is scheduled for Oct. 19-21 in Chicago, Illinois.
Among the newest district energy providers—at least in name—is Vicinity Energy, a company recently launched by Antin Infrastructure Partners after Antin’s purchase of Veolia North America’s district energy assets in the U.S. Vicinity, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, immediately became North America’s largest provider of district energy. The company is supplying energy and related services across 13 networks in 10 major cities, including large networks in Boston; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; and Kansas City, Missouri.…
District Energy Systems Improve Efficiency and Reduce Carbon Emissions
Although it’s not widely publicized, a majority of the energy used to generate electricity is wasted in the form of heat discharged to the environment. For better or worse, that’s just the way a typical thermal power plant works.
Fuel, such as coal, biomass, natural gas, or uranium (in the case of nuclear plants), is used to heat water, producing high-temperature and high-pressure steam. The steam is admitted into a turbine, which spins a generator to produce electricity. However, not all of the energy stored in the steam is converted to useful work through the process.
In order for the cycle to continue, the steam exhausted from the turbine must be returned to its liquid form inside a condenser. In a fairly standard arrangement, the condenser is cooled by river, lake, or ocean water. The cooling water from the condenser is often simply released back to its source, and with it, the energy that was transferred inside the condenser.
Waste Not, Want Not
The average U.S.…