The city’s energy network just got greener.
Veolia Energy, the Boston-based company that owns the city’s energy network, recently completed $60 million upgrades to the network, according to a release. The upgrades, which Veolia is calling Philly’s “Green Steam” project, will reduce the city’s carbon footprint by 70,000 metric tons every year. Combined with Veolia’s cogeneration efforts, the total carbon footprint reduction will be 430,000 tons a year, which is the equivalent of removing 70,000 cars from the road, according to the release.
The upgrades include two new natural gas boilers at the Veolia’s Gray’s Ferry plant and “an expansion of the pipeline that delivers the gas to the plant,” as the Philadelphia Inquirer put it. Aside from the reduced greenhouse gas emissions, that also means the plant will:
- emit 93 percent less sulfur dioxide
- emit 20 percent less nitrogen oxide
Veolia has 300 customers in the city, according to the Inquirer, and its biggest customer is the University of Pennsylvania. Read more from the Inquirer here.
