How New York Plans to Turn Waste Heat Into Clean Energy

District heating has been around for almost 150 years, with the first commercial system established in New York in 1877, yet it is still not widely used. The original systems used steam produced by a central fossil-fuel boiler. However, systems have evolved over time, and modern heating networks have more flexible infrastructure that can connect multiple energy and storage solutions to supply both heating and cooling.At present, district heating supplies approximately 10 per cent of global building heat demand, with most networks concentrated in Northern and Eastern Europe and China. Other parts of the world have also recently begun to adopt district heating, including Canada and Ireland. District heating is particularly useful in dense urban areas as it can be developed efficiently in terms of space and can recover waste heat and reduce local air pollution, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Roughly 90 per cent of the global district heating supply is produced using fossil fuels at present. However, there is significant potential to shift reliance from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives to power district heating systems, such as bioenergy, solar thermal, geothermal energy, and nuclear energy.In the U.S. state of New York, the UpgradeNY coalition of clean energy, environmental, and labour groups has been calling for regulators to adopt clean electric heating by replacing gas pipelines with thermal networks. UpgradeNY says that by using heat pumps and tapping into sources of waste heat, such as underground and industrial or municipal systems, the region could reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.In October, the New York Public Service Commission approved two utility thermal energy network (UTEN) plans, which are expected to cost a combined $111.5 million to develop. However, it rejected nine other UTEN projects, including several in New York City. The projects will be developed in the Hudson Valley town of Haverstraw and in the city of Buffalo and, if successful, could provide blueprints for projects in other parts of the United States. The financing comes from a $150 million commitment to thermal energy networks, helping ensure costs are not shifted to consumers.Thermal energy networks rely on wells and pipes to circulate water or other fluids that capture the ambient temperatures hundreds of feet under the Earth’s surface, as well as waste heat from sewer systems, industrial facilities, and data centres. The steady heat exchange helps to improve the efficiency of electric-powered heat pumps, which are used instead of gas-powered boilers and furnaces. The development of the new systems is expected to create several jobs in the region during construction.Massachusetts has already developed a UTEN project that provides heating and cooling to about 140 customers. Meanwhile, California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Washington are all exploring the potential for UTEN development. However, there are still uncertainties about the costs of installing and operating these systems, as most existing projects are small-scale and do not provide a clear picture of what commercial deployment might look like.The New York Public Service Commission plans to invest $50 million in developing the Haverstraw thermal energy network to connect up to 30 structures, including single- and multifamily residences, commercial and government buildings, and an elementary school. The network is designed to tap into ambient heat from bore fields drilled on municipal land, as well as wastewater in the city’s sewer network. Meanwhile, the Buffalo project will use an existing steam heat system. The utility National Fuel Gas will shift away from using natural gas for heating in the area by combining water from boreholes and a wastewater heat recovery system, with plans to provide clean heat and cooling to low-income multifamily housing. In August, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced plans to assess whether a UTEN could help reduce temperatures on subway platforms in Lower Manhattan while transferring excess heat to nearby municipal buildings. The $800,000 feasibility study focuses specifically on the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall 4, 5, 6 and Chambers Street J Z station complex. If implemented, it would be the first UTEN project to be installed in a U.S. public transport system.Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall recorded average platform temperatures of 35.6°C in the summer of 2025, making it one of the hottest stations in the city’s subway system. The proposed network would use radiant cooling to absorb heat from the platform and transfer it through pipes to geothermal boreholes beneath an abandoned centre platform at Chambers Street, where it would be stored underground and retrieved during colder weather to supply heat to nearby municipal buildings.District heating has been around for over a century, but most systems continue to rely heavily on natural gas for heating and cooling. Several areas of the world are now assessing the potential to adapt systems to tap into waste heat, which is particularly common in densely populated areas and industrial operations, and transfer it to nearby buildings. This could reduce dependence on fossil fuels and provide cleaner heating and cooling systems.By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.comMore Top Reads From Oilprice.comOil Prices Head for 12% Weekly Loss Despite Fresh Tanker AttacksConocoPhillips Doubles Profit to $4 Billion, Raises DividendADNOC Gas to Supply LNG to TotalEnergies Under Five-Year Deal