New York backs two projects to turn waste heat into energy

District heating dates to 1877, when New York established the first commercial system. Today, it supplies about 10 per cent of global building heat demand, but roughly 90 per cent of that supply still comes from fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency. Modern networks can connect several heat sources and storage systems, and may recover heat from sewers, industrial facilities and data centres.

In October, the New York Public Service Commission approved two utility thermal energy network (UTEN) plans and rejected nine others, including several proposed for New York City. The projects draw on a $150 million commitment to thermal networks, intended to ensure costs are not passed on to consumers. The commission plans to invest $50 million in Haverstraw’s system, which would connect up to 30 structures, including homes, commercial and government buildings, and an elementary school. It would use heat from boreholes on municipal land and from the town’s sewer network.

In Buffalo, National Fuel Gas plans to adapt an existing steam heating system, combining water from boreholes with wastewater heat recovery. The project is intended to provide heating and cooling to low-income multifamily housing while moving the area away from natural gas. Heat pumps would use the networks’ steady exchange of underground and recovered heat instead of gas-fired boilers and furnaces.

New York is also studying a transit application. In August, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced an $800,000 feasibility study of a network that could cool the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall and Chambers Street subway complex in Lower Manhattan, while sending excess heat to nearby municipal buildings. The Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall platforms averaged 35.6°C in summer 2025. The proposed system would transfer platform heat to geothermal boreholes beneath an abandoned centre platform at Chambers Street, store it underground and retrieve it in colder weather. If built, it would be the first UTEN in a U.S. public transport system.

Massachusetts already has a UTEN serving about 140 customers; California, Colorado, Minnesota and Washington are also exploring the technology. But costs remain uncertain: most existing systems are small, offering limited evidence of what wider commercial deployment would cost. The New York projects are expected to create several regional jobs during construction.