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Denver’s New Clean Energy Plan Runs on Water, Geothermal Heat, and Technically Poop

The city is planning a cleaner thermal energy network that could pull usable heat from wastewater flowing through sewer lines.

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One day soon, the citizens of Denver might be heating and cooling the buildings they work and live in through the power of their own poop. According to NPR, the city is moving ahead with a plan to replace part of its fossil-fuel-powered steam system with a much cleaner thermal energy network fueled by water, geothermal heat, and the not-at-all-clean power of sewage.

Denver’s downtown is powered by one of the oldest commercial steam systems in the world. It dates back to the 1800s, and it’s powered by natural gas. It’s old and outdated. Yet it still heats more than 100 buildings, even though maintaining it is expensive and incompatible with the city’s goal of........

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