Duluth Receives Grant to Design Geothermal Heating District in Lincoln Park Neighborhood
DULUTH, Minn. – Duluth is one of 11 communities across the country receiving a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help design a geothermal heating district.
“This extremely exciting opportunity to analyze and design a district geothermal and heat recovery possibility—one that hasn’t been designed in the US before—comes to us with a ton of potential to further reduce operating emissions and introduce more strategies to decarbonize many of the buildings in the district,” says Mayor Emily Larson of the award. “This community collaboration, led by City staff, really shows the community momentum behind finding new clean energy solutions.”
The city is partnering with Ever-Green Energy, Ecolibrium 3, and the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District to create a system that will use the heat from liquid waste and sewage that currently flows through WLSSD to cover all the heating needs for a portion of the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
“When implemented, it can de-carbonize hundreds of buildings in the corridor through Lincoln Park, and also those in our downtown system as well,” says Mindy Granley, City of Duluth Sustainability Officer.
Ken Smith, CEO of Ever-Green Energy, calls this a bold and big idea that could be a model for others to copy across the country. “There’s only a handful of these types of projects on the planet, and I’ve been to some of them. They’re in Finland and in Sweden. There’s a few others, but there’s none in the United States. So this is a way to demonstrate what is possible in this community to the rest of the nation.”
The $700,000 grant will cover a 12-month period for designing how a geothermal system will be added to the current underground infrastructure. This potential project would coincide with the future redevelopment of West Superior Street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
“In the 11th month, that’s when we need to turn in the design elements,” says Jodi Slick, Founder and CEO of Ecolibrium 3. “It is from those design elements…that the federal government will determine to fund the implementation of some of these projects.
“It is very timely, it is a very short window of opportunity because the city and their engineers and their design firms are working feverishly right now to look at West Superior Street, which is going to be everything from where is going to be the sidewalk to that utility layer.”
