Posted by Tony Conner on May 15, 2001 at 11:18:09:
In Reply to: Re: FUTURE OF DISTRICT ENERGY posted by pbartlett on May 14, 2001 at 08:30:41:
For every business success like the one in St. Paul, there must be 5 marginal operations, and 5 more out-and-out losers. As a technical & environmental concept, district heating is great. From a business perspective, a lot of places would have been much further ahead financially if they'd just put their money in an old coffee can, and buried it in the backyard. I know of one low-temp hot water system that uses heat from turbine exhaust. They have heat scavenged off a coal fired central generating plant (this has to be some of the cheapest heat you can get), and it's STILL a loser.
I have no explaination as to why some operations succeed, while many others wallow. If somebody can figure this out (and I hope somebody does), I think they'll be able to make a LOT of money.