GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Across the street from Van Andel Arena is a building so vital to Grand Rapids that the city wouldn’t function without it. Now, an important upgrade is full steam ahead.
For more than 100 years, this facility has been producing steam, which is sent to more than 100 buildings in downtown Grand Rapids.
“Down to our restaurants that help make your food and use our steam for dish washing and food preparation, to our hospitals using it for sanitation and humidification for their use,” said Jesse Douglas, vice president and general manager of Vicinity Energy.
The most important use of the steam is to keep buildings warm in the winter.
“The fact that we have our team here and our infrastructure here allows us to take the responsibility for heating downtown Grand Rapids outside of the responsibility of each individual building,” said Douglas.
The facility currently uses four boilers that were made in the '60s.
Douglas said, “Although our system might be from the 1960s and '70s, we also have some of the most modern controls. So, we invest in the technology that increases our efficiency.”
To increase their efficiency, they are now installing the first new boiler in 60 years. The big difference is the new boiler will use electricity instead of natural gas to make steam.
“The expectation is that this will be the first major step towards decarbonization for the city of Grand Rapids,” said Douglas.
To help fund the upgrade, the plant’s owner received a $2 million clean energy grant from the state.
“In partnership with the city and now with the state providing a grant through the Public Service Commission, we're going to be able to install a new system that will be able to provide a lower-cost decarbonization strategy than individual buildings may be able to do,” Douglas said.
He says they are not abandoning natural gas and that it will remain an essential part of their system.
“The reality is, we can fuel switch and add in alternative fuel sources and start decarbonizing and reducing the carbon footprint to deal with some of the global challenges and weather change that we all experience,” said Douglas.
Vicinity says the e-boiler should be online by the end of 2025 and they are considering adding more in the future.
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