Central Corridor energy district would benefit Saint Paul

The prospect of a thermal energy district along the Central Corridor may offer significant benefits for business owners, light rail commuters, neighborhood residents and the environment.

Powered by homegrown, renewable fuel, a proposed power plant adjacent to the Rock-Tenn paper recycling facility could deliver hot water heat at stable prices to the owners and tenants of commercial buildings on University Avenue.

With all those furnaces and boilers shut down, air quality would be improved for neighborhood residents. And by curtailing the burning of oil and natural gas for heat, commercial building owners would help Saint Paul reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is harming the Earth's climate.

Underground pipes running east along the Central Corridor would warm the platforms of the planned light rail line, keeping them free of ice and snow and providing a constant source of heat for waiting passengers.

"While traffic congestion along I-94 and at Snelling and University Avenues plays a far more significant role in polluting neighborhood air, furnaces and boilers from commercial buildings on University Avenue emit air pollution, too," said Anders Rydaker, president of District Energy St. Paul. "Renewable thermal energy from an energy district could provide heat to businesses without the price spikes of fuel oil and natural gas. And it would reduce sources of pollution and greenhouse gases along the Central Corridor."