On November 12th, George Mason University’s Virginia Climate Center, the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, and DC Water hosted a webinar introducing Washington DC’s success interconnecting water infrastructures and district energy systems to convey heat, enhancing the city’s resilience to an increasingly variable climate.
Many thanks to our speakers and attendees for a successful event! Click the link and use the password below to watch the full webinar.
Password to access recording: mF?f0T.d
Local governments looking to reduce their carbon footprints face multiple interrelated technical, policy, and economic opportunities and challenges. This is especially the case when trying to move heat among buildings through district energy systems. While the movement of heat using district energy systems and water infrastructure is common among cities across Europe, they are relatively uncommon in the United States. However, this has the potential to change. In 2018, DC Water assisted with the development of heat conveyance through interconnected water infrastructure at the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Wastewater thermal energy, as utilized at AGU, can serve as a consistent baseload source of heating and cooling, enabling development of district energy systems. The potential for larger-scale district energy developments in Northern Virginia, given the growth of nearby data centers, is substantial.
Mr. Saul Kinter, Business Development Manager for DC Water, and Mr. Nate Madding, Huber Technology’s Director of Green Building Technologies, shared their stories of collaboration with aligning heat and energy transmission to water infrastructure.
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Saul Kinter is the Program Manager for Business Development and for Energy Initiatives at DC Water. He holds a BSE degree from Princeton University, where his thesis described a new model for distributing surface water according to the Texas water rights system, and has published or spoken on a wide-ranging set of topics, including climate variability, ocean-atmosphere gas transfer, the value of water conservation, and wastewater thermal energy. At DC Water, he developed the Bloom biosolids marketing program, and is currently responsible for developing new revenue streams, including from renewable energy.
Nathan Madding is the Director of Green Building Solutions for HUBER Technology, at the forefront of building decarbonization through wastewater energy transfer solutions. He has been involved in wastewater and building decarbonization since 2014, beginning with the first NetZero retrofit in Washington DC. Nate first worked with HUBER as an application engineer on designing wastewater energy transfer systems for the North American market. Nate then led the Industrial and Green Building teams as the Industrial Sales Director before moving into his role as the Director of Green Building Solutions.
Nate graduated from Appalachian State University where he developed a deep love of the outdoors and a commitment to sustainability. He then obtained his Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering at UNC-Charlotte, working in the Energy Production & Infrastructure Center (EPIC).
Dr. James Kinter is a Professor at George Mason University in the department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences. He serves as Director of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA) and the Virginia Climate Center (VCC). He studies climate variability and predictability, focusing on seasonal phenomena and weather extremes. Dr. Kinter leads the VCC to enhance the resilience of Virginia’s communities to the impacts of climate change through local engagement. After earning his doctorate in geophysical fluid dynamics at Princeton University in 1984, Dr. Kinter served as a National Research Council Associate at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and as a faculty member of the University of Maryland prior to helping to create COLA. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and a member of the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
Dr. Dale Medearis has worked since 2007 as a senior regional planner for the Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC). He currently helps co-manage NVRC’s regional sustainability, resiliency and international programs. Prior to working for NVRC, Medearis spent approximately 20 years at the Office of International Affairs, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in Washington DC. At EPA, he helped manage the Agency’s programs for urban sustainability, Eastern and Western Europe, the OECD, and Middle East. Medearis has a Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning from Virginia Tech University, an M.S. in Cartographic and Geographic Science from George Mason University, an M.G.A. in Government from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Redlands.
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12:00pm Welcome / Introductions
Dr. James L. Kinter III, Director of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, George Mason University
12:05pm Building Heat Conveyance Infrastructure One Step at a Time: Story of DC Water
Mr. Saul Kinter, Business Development Manager, DC Water
12:30pm Heat Conveyance Technologies and the Greening of the American Geophysical Union Building
Mr. Nate Madding, Director of Green Building Solutions, Huber Technology Inc.
12:55pm Q&A
Dr. Dale Medearis, Northern Virginia Regional Commission
1:15pm Close