City of Duluth wins $700,000 federal grant for wastewater heating project

(UI) – According to MPRnews, the city of Duluth has won a “major” federal grant to create a system that will utilize energy from a wastewater treatment plant to provide heat to buildings in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. With the $700,000 grant, officials will analyze the proposal for economic and technical practicability.

Known as a “geothermal heating district,” the initiative will use heat generated from waste at the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District to warm over 2 million square feet worth of buildings. Mindy Granley, Duluth’s sustainability officer, explained that the “technology will use pumps to move heat around instead of using fossil fuels to gain heat.”

Leading the study is Ever-Green Energy, who’s CEO, Ken Smith, commented that the system could be a “model for the nation.” While countries like Finland, Sweden and China have similar projects in the works, Smith says, “as far as tapping into the waste heat at a wastewater treatment plant and using that to serve a community, that does not exist in the United States.”

The wastewater project will likely cost “tens of millions of dollars” to support the building of new infrastructure that will move hot water and link it to various buildings’ heating systems. However, the grant could cover 90% of these costs, according to Jodi Slick, project-cofounder and CEO of Ecolibrium3.

The timing couldn’t come soon enough as Duluth prepares for reconstruction on  Lincoln Park’s main roadway. The city will use a recently awarded $25 million federal grant for work including underground utilities replacement.

This story was originally reported by MPRnews.org.

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