Jackie Bliss
Greater Boston has always been known for its elite colleges and universities, top-tier hospitals, iconic sports franchises and rich history. With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, the area’s life science and biotechnology sector became the latest Massachusetts industry to bring international acclaim. And while the emergency use authorization of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was only the latest watershed moment in the history of this cutting-edge industry, it underscored the role that our burgeoning life science and biotech hub plays in propelling medical innovation.
Yet, the region’s innovators and municipal leaders have also been mindful of the long-term environmental impacts of its innovation, having seen that new advances such as cryptocurrency can come with substantial environmental consequences. As the region continues to lead on strategies to limit its carbon emissions, civic leaders in Greater Boston must do everything in their power to support these essential companies and breakthrough technologies with the proper infrastructure to modernize their energy usage and protect the world we live in.
With many cities and towns navigating crucial environmental policy issues such as carbon mandates, the need to utilize new standards and technologies to encourage job growth and safer living and working conditions for residents is key.
As the owner and operator of the nation’s largest portfolio of district energy systems, Vicinity Energy is already supplying clean steam – a low-carbon thermal product that is a byproduct of cogeneration, also known as combined heat and power, where electricity is produced for the grid and thermal energy is converted to steam – in cities like Boston and Philadelphia, where area facility managers can transition office spaces into lab facilities quickly in support of the city’s booming life sciences industry.
This technology allows those entities to rapidly decarbonize without the need to retrofit as part of BERDO 2.0.
To further support decarbonization in major urban cities, Vicinity Energy launched the nation’s first 100 percent carbon-free renewable energy solution, known as eSteam. In Boston and Cambridge, where buildings account for nearly 70 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, local building managers, commercial real estate developers, and institutions are scrambling to find a way to rapidly decarbonize their buildings without costly retrofitting. eSteam provides an alternative to expensive retrofitting and supports the growing needs of the life sciences industry.
District Steam for Downtowns
The life science industry’s prospects are strong within Greater Boston and beyond. One recent proof point: the developer Breakthrough Properties just announced it had raised a record $3 billion fund to invest in life sciences real estate across its portfolio. The company already has 4.6 million square feet of projects in its pipeline, including its first project in Philadelphia, a 200,000 square foot ground-up development site next to the University of Pennsylvania, where the technology from Moderna’s mRNA vaccine for COVID was produced.
Boston remains a mecca for life sciences research with world-class research institutions and lab infrastructure. As the region is seeing a building boom in lab construction, it is paramount that the expected expansion over the next decade is done responsibly. The pending enforcement of BERDO 2.0 performance standards has local facility managers and developers debating how to best aggregate their precision heating and cooling sources without adopting an extensive – and pricey – energy overhaul.
With the trend of office-to-laboratory conversions continuing here in Boston and across the United States, district energy offers a robust, reliable energy solution for life science companies and a rapid decarbonization pathway for cities. And with solutions that are reliable and sustainable, technologies like carbon-free eSteam are uniquely positioned to advance the next wave of breakthroughs while prioritizing reliability of service, providing a safer, more environmentally friendly solution to keep the life science sector primed for innovation.
Jackie Bliss is the chief customer officer at Vicinity Energy.
