District heating systems, which have existed for nearly 150 years, currently supply approximately 10 percent of global building heat demand, with most infrastructure concentrated in Northern and Eastern Europe and China. Modern district heating networks have evolved from early steam-based systems to flexible infrastructure capable of integrating multiple energy sources and storage solutions for both heating and cooling services.
Roughly 90 percent of existing global district heating supply relies on fossil fuels, though significant potential exists to transition toward renewable energy alternatives including bioenergy, solar thermal, geothermal energy, and nuclear sources. In the United States, the UpgradeNY coalition has advocated for regulatory adoption of clean electric heating through thermal networks, proposing that waste heat sources such as underground reserves, industrial facilities, and municipal systems could substantially reduce regional dependence on fossil fuels.
In October, the New York Public Service Commission approved two utility thermal energy network (UTEN) projects with a combined development cost of $111.5 million, while declining nine other proposals. The approved initiatives will be implemented in Haverstraw in the Hudson Valley and in Buffalo, with development supported by a $150 million commitment to thermal energy networks. The Haverstraw project aims to connect up to 30 structures including residential, commercial, and government buildings by tapping into ambient heat from bore fields and wastewater heat recovery systems. Buffalo’s project will convert an existing steam heating system to combine boreholes and wastewater heat recovery for low-income multifamily housing.
Thermal energy networks utilize wells and piping to circulate water capturing temperatures from hundreds of feet underground, along with waste heat from sewers, industrial facilities, and data centers. The heat exchange improves efficiency of electric-powered heat pumps used in place of gas-based equipment. Additionally, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced an $800,000 feasibility study to assess whether thermal energy networks could reduce subway platform temperatures while transferring excess heat to nearby municipal buildings, potentially marking the first such application in a U.S. public transit system.
While Massachusetts has successfully developed a UTEN project serving approximately 140 customers, and California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Washington are exploring similar development, uncertainties remain regarding installation and operational costs due to the current predominance of small-scale projects that do not yet demonstrate commercial deployment economics.
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