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Who owns Ever-Green Energy?
Is Ever-Green Energy a for-profit organization?
Why was Ever-Green Energy created?
What is district energy?
What are the main advantages of district energy?
How reliable is district energy?
What is combined heat and power?
Why is district energy good for our cities?
Who owns Ever-Green Energy?
Ever-Green Energy, LLC is owned by District Energy St. Paul, Inc. and District Cooling St. Paul, Inc., both located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ever-Green Energy's mission is to develop efficient energy systems that benefit its customers, the communities it serves, and the environment.
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Is Ever-Green Energy a for-profit organization?
Yes, Ever-Green Energy is the for-profit arm of District Energy St. Paul and District Cooling St. Paul, both of which are private, non-profit corporations.
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Why was Ever-Green Energy created?
A long-term goal of District Energy St. Paul founders was to produce energy to meet customer needs using a combined heat and power (CHP) facility that simultaneously produces heat and electricity. Ever-Green Energy was formed to develop the CHP facility. Ever-Green Energy partnered with Cinergy Solutions (now Duke Energy Generation Services) to build the biomass CHP plant adjacent to the District Energy facility.
This foresight and leadership led to the development of a state-of-the-art, fuel-flexible, biomass-fired CHP plant in Saint Paul that has been recognized around the world and is used as a model for other cities and communities, especially given the escalating cost of energy and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This project has resulted in low, stable rates for District Energy customers, cleaner air, additional jobs in the community and reduced emissions to the environment.
After successfully developing the CHP facility in Saint Paul, Ever-Green Energy began expanding its team in response to an ever-growing number of calls from communities throughout the United States needing creative, sustainable solutions to meet their energy challenges and reduce their carbon footprint. The company also is focusing its attention on projects that promote energy efficiency, the innovative application of proven technologies, and the use of renewable energy.
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What is district energy?
District energy systems produce steam, hot water or chilled water at a central plant and then pipe that energy out to buildings in the "district" for space heating, domestic hot water heating and air conditioning. As a result, individual buildings don't need their own boilers or furnaces, chillers or air conditioners.
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What are the main advantages of district energy?
A district energy system serves many customers from one location and it can accomplish things individual buildings usually cannot. District energy systems can use a variety of conventional fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, whichever fuel is most competitive at the time. And because of a district energy system's size, the district energy plant can also transition to use renewable fuels such as biomass, geothermal, and combined heat and power.
Buildings connected to district energy systems also have lower capital costs for their energy equipment because they don't need conventional boilers and chillers. They save valuable upfront dollars they can invest elsewhere. Plus, they save building space that can be used for other more valuable purposes.
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How reliable is district energy?
Building owners and managers can count on district energy systems since energy professionals operate around-the-clock and have backup systems readily available. Most district energy systems operate at a reliability rate of 99.999 percent, according to the International District Energy Association.
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What is combined heat and power?
Combined heat and power — also known as cogeneration — is a way to increase the efficiency of power plants and reduce the amount of energy wasted into the environment. Standard power plants effectively use just 40 percent of the fuel they burn to produce electricity. The other 60 percent of the fuel used in the electric production process ends up being "waste" heat that is rejected to the environment through smokestacks and cooling towers or dumped into a river.
Combined heat and power uses this "waste" heat to heat buildings in a surrounding area through a district energy system. Combined heat and power is only possible when there is an area near the plant that has a need for the heat — a downtown area, a college campus or an industrial development.
If one of our nation's energy challenges is lack of power, what if we doubled the efficiency of as many power plants as possible and got more energy for every gallon of oil or ton of coal they burn? Combined heat and power can help us do just that — and even help the environment in the process since less heat and fewer emissions will be rejected into the atmosphere.
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Why is district energy good for our cities?
District cooling systems, in particular, displace peak electric power demand with steam-based cooling, district cooling, and storage using ice or chilled water. This benefits the local power grid by reducing peak power demand and alleviating power congestion due to power transmission limitations in cities. So district energy not only helps heat and cool cities, it helps alleviate the challenges posed by high electric consumption.
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