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Puget Sound Energy is seeking city approvals for an $18.5 million heating and cooling pilot at Seattle University, with street work and electrical reviews among the requirements that must be resolved before construction can begin.
The proposed Thermal Energy Network would connect several campus buildings through a shared system intended to recycle waste heat and replace fossil-fuel boilers with centralized, electrified thermal transfer. The pilot aims to test whether shared thermal loops can work technically and commercially in an urban setting while potentially reducing demand on Seattle’s increasingly stressed energy grid.
No timeline has been set for turning on the system.
The construction permit application remains under review after a preliminary land-use assessment was completed, according to city records. PSE is seeking both master use and construction permit approvals.
Plans call for approximately 1,500 feet of pipe trenching, including work in public rights-of-way along Broadway and E Columbia. Before the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections can issue building permits, the Seattle Department of Transportation must approve Street Improvement Plans.
City reviewers have also set requirements for protecting mature street trees, controlling stormwater and maintaining traffic around streetcar tracks and protected bike lanes.
Seattle City Light must finalize underground electrical designs and verify required safety buffer zones around overhead high-voltage lines before groundbreaking.
The network would serve Lemieux Library, Campion Hall, Loyola Building and the Student Center through specialized Energy Transfer Stations.
At its center would be a high-efficiency, 4-pipe hydronic loop powered by an industrial air-source ammonia heat pump. Plans submitted to the city specify a heating capacity of 3,000 MBH at 180°F and cooling capacity of 285 tons at 40°F.
Two 2,000 MBH natural gas boilers would provide emergency backup.
The proposed central plant would occupy two modular, shipping-container-sized buildings in the alleyway just east of the university’s multilevel Broadway parking garage, at the southwest corner of campus.
One enclosure would contain heat pump compressors, hydronic distribution pumps, heat exchangers and electrical controls. The other would house the backup boilers and loop-distribution equipment. Industrial condensing units would be permanently installed on the parking structure’s upper deck.
Seattle Central College has pursued a similar effort to replace its aging steam heating system through a private partnership for an on-campus, fossil-fuel-free central power plant and "EcoDistrict."
Progress has remained uncertain as the college’s broader proposal for a new six-story Information Technology Education Center on Broadway stalled.
By 2024, Seattle Central estimated its project would cost $22 million, drawing on local funds, state contributions and outside financing. The college had secured about $2 million in grants, including a $700,000 federal grant via Seattle City Light, but its leadership recommended delaying the major funding push until the 2027–2029 state budget cycle.
The Seattle University proposal joins other efforts to move from fossil-fuel infrastructure toward shared, electrified heating and cooling networks.
In Seattle, Amazon’s campus uses underground hydronic pipes to recycle data-center waste heat. The University of Washington is pursuing a $50 million conversion of its historic central steam plant to a low-temperature hot-water network.
Elsewhere, Eversource recently launched the nation’s first utility-run neighborhood geothermal network in Framingham, Massachusetts. Major New York utilities are deploying dozens of state-mandated pilots connecting universities, commercial properties and residential communities.
Such transitions take time. Any significant residential shift to district energy in Seattle is on track for sometime in the next two decades, as networks come online and aging gas mains reach the end of their life or replacement work coincides with street, sewer and water projects.
For the Seattle University pilot, the immediate steps remain securing permits and completing the required street and electrical approvals.
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