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eSteam™: A cost-effective, carbon-free renewable energy solution to decarbonize your commercial building

Commercial buildings represent the highest source of carbon emissions in major cities, making them one of the most important targets in urban decarbonization. eSteam™ is a unique solution that can address this challenge head-on and inexpensively decarbonize healthcare, life sciences, universities and commercial buildings with ease.

Accelerate decarbonization with eSteam™

Vicinity’s renewable thermal energy product will help you accelerate the decarbonization of your building and our communities. Our solution is turn-key.

eSteam™ reduces the need for you to invest in new onsite energy infrastructure to meet your sustainability goals. By connecting to the district energy system, you eliminate the need to make significant investments to decarbonize your building’s thermal energy load— we’re doing that for you. Vicinity will leverage and build upon existing infrastructure, including our systems of steam pipes, electric substations, and transmission lines, and deploy the capital needed to rapidly reduce our carbon emissions.

Vicinity’s eSteam™ provides a way to cleanly heat and cool urban buildings—reducing the need for natural gas boilers that create unregulated gas stacks and unmonitored carbon emissions—improving overall air quality in neighborhoods.

eSteam™ is the first renewable, carbon-free thermal energy product in the United States, offering maximum flexibility and superior environmental benefits.

eSteam™ benefits:

  • Carbon-free – eSteam™ is carbon-free, so you can meet your sustainability goals and avoid looming carbon taxes.
  • Total flexibility – You nominate how much eSteam™ you want annually and select the renewable electricity source to generate your eSteam™ based on your budget and sustainability objectives.
  • Affordability – eSteam™ is the most cost-effective, affordable option to green your building compared to alternatives, like electric boilers in your building. Vicinity’s access to transmission level rates gives district energy an economic advantage over onsite equipment.
  • Meet carbon emissions reductions goals – Many cities in the U.S. have implemented or are considering laws that will lower greenhouse gas emissions in buildings. Oftentimes, these policies will carry hefty fines for non-compliance. eSteam™ is carbon- free, giving you peace of mind that your building will be green, without costing you more green.
  • Maximum reliability and resiliency – Join the many customers who choose Vicinity’s district energy heating and cooling products for maximum reliability and resiliency.
  • Low capital investments – To access the benefits of eSteam™, you don’t need to invest in costly capital projects and you can avoid expensive building retrofits. Decarbonize your thermal energy footprint by simply connecting to Vicinity’s district energy network.
  • Certifications – Gain potential points for LEED® and ENERGY STAR® certifications to demonstrate your buildings’ commitment to sustainability.

how esteam works
Customers benefit from carbon-free eSteam™ generated with renewable electricity.

eSteam™ is the first commercial renewable thermal energy product in the U.S. to accelerate urban decarbonization.

How eSteam™ works

Generating eSteam™ at Vicinity’s facilities across the country requires the utilization of existing and new technologies.

Where our facilities are adjacent to rivers, we are installing industrial-scale heat pumps to generate steam. Developed in collaboration with MAN Energy Solutions, these industrial-scale heat pump complexes will extract heat from water sources, such as the Charles River in Boston, and the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The heat pump will harvest energy from these water sources and use it to generate steam and improve the system’s overall efficiency.

The heat pumps will be used in combination with electric boilers and thermal storage, so that all of Vicinity’s facilities can offer eSteam™ to customers.