Summary
Fully electrified Thermal Microgrids are undoubtedly the most efficient solution for reducing CO2 emissions from buildings, districts and campuses. Thermal microgrids are clusters of buildings or district energy systems that combine heat recovery and storage, renewable energy, and electric power management through smart and distributed communications and control technologies. With funding of the APPA DEED program, EDF developed an in-depth overview of the world's largest Thermal Microgrid at works, the Stanford Energy System Innovations project. Stanford created a massive Thermal Microgrid of the entire campus (180 buildings), thus reducing by 80% CO2 emissions, by 15% water use and up to $420 million of total energy savings over 35 years. And this is not Stanford specific: electrification and heat recovery make sense in all climates.
Publicly available project results
- White paper describing the technology, economics and market potential of thermal microgrids and comparing them to alternatives such as cogeneration
- Stanford Case Study describing the Stanford Energy System Innovations project, in which their campus-wide cogeneration system was transformed to a renewable electricity powered heat recovery system with low temperature hot water distribution
- Tool Suite Guide for tools assessing technical and economic feasibility
- Municipal Case Studies applying the tools to feasibility assessments
Additional downloads
Webinar of May 17, 2018:
(Transcript included in notes section of powerpoint file)
Webinar of March 13, 2019:
(Transcript will be uploaded soon)
