Boston-based Vicinity Energy is on a mission to decarbonize communities, from buildings to college campuses to entire neighborhoods.
Now, the company is bringing its technology to the Fenway neighborhood.
Vicinity Energy announced a partnership with IQHQ Inc., a life sciences real estate development company. The partnership will bring Vicinity Energy’s carbon-free, renewable thermal energy to IQHQ’s developments in the Fenway neighborhood.
One of the first stops for this new heating technology will be IQHQ’s development at 109 Brookline Ave. The company said this will be one of Boston’s first entirely carbon-neutral buildings. The 305,000-square-foot building will include office and laboratory space and is part of what IQHQ calls its “FWD district” — an area between Kenmore Square and the Longwood Medical area where it is building a life science cluster.
“At IQHQ, we have a commitment to developing class-A life science districts that provide our tenant, visitors, and communities at large with healthy, resilient, and responsible spaces,” Jenny Whitson, director of Sustainability and ESG for IQHQ, said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with Vicinity Energy to decarbonize the steam serving our projects.”
The technology making this possible is called “eSteam.” Vicinity said this process involves thermal energy that is transported through underground pipes from a central plant. The company said this type of energy doesn’t require onsite boilers or chillers. And, Vicinity said its operations are decarbonized as well. It uses electric boilers, industrial-scale heat pumps and thermal storage at its central facilities in Boston and Cambridge.
Vicinity said it plans to start delivering its heating services, which it calls eSteam, in 2024.
IQHQ also plans to use eSteam at its Fenway Center development. This is a mixed-use life science campus that will be located over the Massachusetts Turnpike. The $1 billion project started construction in 2021.
“We are proud to partner with IQHQ as our first carbon-free eSteam customer to reduce their buildings' carbon emissions and enable IQHQ to achieve their ESG goals while complying with the city’s BERDO 2.0 regulations,” Bill DiCroce, president and chief executive officer of Vicinity Energy, said in a statement. “This eSteam partnership not only signifies our commitment to a clean energy future, but it also demonstrates the commitment from progressive, innovative industry leaders, like IQHQ, who are committed to lower carbon emissions and to combat climate change.”
The Building Emissions Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance, or BERDO, became law in late 2021. Under this new ordinance, buildings must hit increasingly tougher emissions targets through the year 2050. At that point, buildings are supposed to be net zero.
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An earlier version of this story misidentified the technology being used.
