After the energy crisis of the '70s, the plant was built in an old coal-fired electricity generation plant in 1983 with $42 million, mostly in revenue bonds. The non-profit utility -- which now burns oil, natural gas, coal and wood -- was thought a better, cheaper, moreenvironmentally friendly way to heat and cool Downtown buildings.
"The plant is a model of energy efficiency," Bush said after touring the plant. "It is also a model of energy diversity. It uses conventional fuels like oil and natural gas and coal,and renewable fuels like wood chips. And the plant is a model of affordability. While other energy prices rise, District Energy has not raised its heating andcooling rates in four years."
The plant boils enough water to heat 146 major office buildings in Downtown St. Paul. Not a bit of energy is wasted, not even the waste, Bush says. The excess heat generated as the water boils is captured and used to create steam, which generates still more electricityto power pumps and to deliver heat.
District Heating in St. Paul is planning to add a $52-million plant that will burn waste wood. In a joint effort with the Cincinnati-based Trigen-Cinergy Solutions, the plant would burn 250,000 to 275,000 tons of the some 600,000 tons of waste wood producedeach year, the plant of it to. The plant would heat commercial, industrial and residential space and also produce electricity to be sold to Xcel Energy.
"District Energy St. Paul serves as an example of the potential district energy and combined heat and power systems hold for further increasing the efficiency ofheating and cooling our nation's cities and university campuses," says Robert P. Thornton, president of the International District Energy Association. "Energy efficiency, reliability and fuel flexibility are district energy hallmarks - and those certainlyare key to stabilizing the country's energy future."
Most of District Energy's customers -- such as Lawson Commons and the Minnesota Life buildings – are commercial enterprises totaling more than 20 million sf of space. District Energy officials say their heating rates are one-half to one-fourth of the price of natural gas. District Heating's industrial customers include the RiverCentre complex, the EmpireBuilder Industrial Park north of Pennsylvania Avenue and the three downtown St. Paul hospitals. It is negotiating with U.S. Bancorp to extend its pipes and service to the West Side and the emerging River Flats development.
There are 298 single-family town homes on the District Energy heating system in Mount Airy. It also serves several large downtown residences such as Galtier Towers. Its main pipes -- 15 miles of heating pipe and four miles of cooling -- are already in place, so adding a building is usually a matter of hooking up a feeder line.
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