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Committee hears pilot to map wastewater heat potential; bill laid over
Summary
Senate File 2106 would fund feasibility work to identify wastewater treatment facilities that could supply thermal energy to district heating systems and allocate limited engineering funds for pilot projects; the committee adopted an A1 amendment and laid the bill over for omnibus consideration.
The Minnesota Senate Energy, Utilities, Environment and Climate Committee heard testimony on Senate File 2106, which would direct a statewide feasibility study to identify wastewater treatment facilities with recoverable thermal energy and provide limited engineering funding for two pilot projects.
Senator McKeown, sponsor of SF 2106, told the committee the bill would provide energy-resource information to the state’s roughly 800 public wastewater treatment facilities. He said two recent studies — in Saint Paul and Duluth — found wastewater facilities with enough recoverable heat to serve about 40,000,000 square feet of building space via district energy systems. "The feasibility study language contained in Senate File 2106 will identify wastewater facilities throughout the state where thermal energy from the facilities could be captured and utilized," McKeown said, and the bill would quantify total energy available for heating purposes and provide limited design funding for one project in the seven-county metropolitan area and one project outside the metro area.
Michael Auger, senior vice president and chief business officer at Evergreen Energy, described global examples of sewer heat recovery — including projects in Helsinki, Denver and Seattle — and said Minnesota’s facilities could become local heating resources and potential revenue sources for facility operators. "This is a circular economy heating solution generated by a local resource," Auger said, noting results in Duluth and Saint Paul that indicated significant recoverable heat.
Chandra Herr, senior policy associate with Clean Energy Economy Minnesota (SEAM), testified in support and said the pilot would help local governments overcome financial and technical barriers to integrating wastewater heat into district systems. Committee members asked several questions, including a request from Senator Gruenhagen for comparative cost information versus other heating options. Mr. Auger said the recovered energy is currently wasted and that captured heat would be benchmarked against other energy resources; he told the senator that customers signing off-take agreements would not pay more than they would for other energy sources.
Staff and the sponsor adopted an A1 amendment in committee to specify funding sources (the A1 replaced a general fund reference with the Renewable Development Account for this bill). The committee chair laid SF 2106 over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill.
Votes at a glance: The committee adopted the A1 amendment by voice vote; no roll call was recorded. Senate File 2106 was laid over for possible omnibus inclusion.
