"'The building owners don't have to do a thing,' said Vicinity Energy CEO Bill DiCroce. 'No major retrofits. No big capital expense on their part. No disruption in the operation of the building. So we become the easy way to decarbonize huge swaths of building space in urban cores.' And it's not just cities that can benefit. Dozens of colleges have district energy systems in place where the fuel source is getting switched in order to lower a university's carbon footprint. 'Instead of doing 150 individual buildings, if you can decarbonize the primary supply to a central plant, then you really achieve lower carbon operations at scale,' said Rob Thornton, president and CEO of the International District Energy Association. More than 900 of these systems exist in the U.S. and Canada, while there are thousands more worldwide. Thornton said switching those systems from fossil fuel to cleaner energy was a more cost-effective way to achieve electrification without overloading the grid. 'District energy is actually a very elegant solution, particularly for cities, campuses, communities and clusters of buildings,' he said. 'It enables buildings to get to net zero.' But in Philadelphia, where city officials pledged to reach net zero by 2050, two federal agencies plan to switch from Vicinity Energy's district steam system to natural gas boilers. This despite President Biden's commitment to tackling climate change, and his executive order mandating that federal agencies work to limit emissions. Both Amtrak's 30th Street Station and Independence National Historical Park, which includes the historic Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell Center and is operated by the National Park Service, have signed deals with the city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works to remove the steam systems and install new natural gas infrastructure.
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