Session 1: Identifying, Evaluating and Planning for Thermal Energy Network Opportunities

Thermal energy takes many forms including surplus or waste heat, geothermal or geo-exchange, industrial and commercial resources, energy-sharing, and nearby bodies of water. Best practices entail mapping and quantifying local thermal energy resources in conjunction with customer discovery, including considerations like density; neighborhood scale solutions, and best-fit technology considerations. Best practices include: o Holistic energy planning/resource mapping to identify/qualify potential sources of thermal energy along parameters such as temperature, pressure, volume, carbon intensity; seasonality, and other factors o Technology options - geothermal (networked, earth-coupled, deep); energy recovery from sewer; wastewater; surface water; data centers; industry - evaluating scale, quality and market potential; risk assessment/mitigation o Customer and market assessment, usage profiles, density considerations, and new-build/existing options assessments o Sector-coupling; grid constraints and other last-mile considerations o Franchise arrangements, considerations and assessing distribution system service radius and coverage

Keywords: Thermal Energy Networks

Gerard MacDonald, LEED AP, P Eng (Non-Practising) (Moderator)

Principal

Reshape Infrastructure Strategies

Gerard is a Principal with Reshape Infrastructure Strategies, an development and advisory firm based in Vancouver, BC that operates across North America. He is a Professional Engineer (non-practising) with a Master’s degree in Clean Energy Engineering. Gerard has twenty years of experience in green buildings and district energy/thermal energy networks. He supports energy utilities, master plan developers, campuses, and municipalities to accelerate the energy transition. 125%

Jared Rodriguez

Principal

Emergent Urban Concepts

Jared Rodriguez is the founder and principal of Emergent Urban Concepts, an energy, planning, development and decarbonization advisory firm based in the Hudson Valley of New York. Jared brings extensive expertise in leading regulatory, advocacy, and market transformation initiatives in energy, development and climate. He regularly collaborates with businesses, organizations, and governments to develop strategic decarbonization plans, advance innovative technologies, and support real estate, economic development, and transportation projects. Jared excels at fostering collaboration across disciplines and applying creative, lateral thinking to tackle complex challenges.

Jared is also a founding member of Community Decarbonization Partners (CDP), a project development firm dedicated to advancing neighborhood-scale decarbonization through public-private partnerships and strategic coalition building. CDP focuses on early-stage decarbonization infrastructure projects across the Northeast, emphasizing local equity and fostering collaboration with residents and community organizations.

Jared serves as a Trustee for the Village of Sleepy Hollow and was recently appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate to the Taconic Regional Commission. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Architectural Studies from Tufts University and a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from NYU. Jared lives in Sleepy Hollow, New York, with his family.

Nicholas Fry, MSc

Geothermal Consultant

Jacobs

Nicholas, based in Calgary, is a sustainable energy scientist with a specialization in geothermal district energy systems. His experience includes project management, modeling and simulation of reservoirs, subsurface heat exchangers and reservoirs, hydraulic network design, city-scale building energy modeling, and stakeholder engagement. His expertise in techno-economic simulation of geothermal systems includes analysis of combined heat and power, pumping, pipe flow, central and distributed heat pumps, network topologies, nodal analysis, underground thermal energy storage, among others. Previous geothermal systems clients include oil and gas majors, real estate developers, data center developers, energy service companies, utilities, state and municipal governments, higher education institutions, technical agencies, among others, across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. Nicholas holds a Master of Science degree in sustainable energy from Reykjavík University and continues to progress his PhD in sustainable systems engineering at the University of Calgary.