Moriarty says the ecodistrict has been so effective that the scope has been expanded to more planned square footage, and a sixth chiller may be added as demand increases. The campus also benefits from having a system that can scale across multiple buildings, rather than one requiring individual units to be installed and maintained. Doppler and the adjacent Meeting Center have green roofs that filter rainwater and reduce cooling loads, while six of Amazon's Seattle buildings have LEED Gold certification for sustainable design and construction. The commitment to district energy in Seattle is just one part of a broader effort at Amazon to operate sustainably, from boosting renewable energy resources to improving packaging. All of it is invisible to the occupants.īecause of the up-front investment to build it, the ecodistrict isn't currently delivering heat that's any cheaper compared to a typical system, according to Moriarty, but "the price of electricity is only going to go up."Ī far-reaching commitment to sustainability A control system at the central plant helps engineers optimize the energy flow. Underground pipes bring the energy to Doppler, while hidden radiant coils circulate the heat, keeping offices comfortable. No employee or visitor to one of the offices in The Regrade would sense that there's anything special about the climate control. A 400,000-gallon tank provides low-grade heat storage and an emergency water supply for Westin if needed. At about 65☏, the arriving water isn't quite hot enough to warm offices, so it's run through five heat-reclaiming chillers that concentrate the heat into a smaller volume of water, raising the temperature to about 130☏. Instead of venting its heat into the atmosphere from rooftop cooling towers, the Westin pipes it to a central plant in Amazon's Doppler tower. Amazon arranged to capture that energy for its campus across the street. A "carrier hotel" that houses more than 250 telecom and Internet companies, the 34-story Westin had heat to spare. The twist with Amazon's system is that it uses waste heat from a non-Amazon data center, the neighboring Westin Building Exchange.
What sets Amazon’s district energy system apart
Cities around the globe such as Boston, Copenhagen, Tokyo and Paris rely on such systems, some of which date back more than 100 years and often linked up to conventional power plants. The idea of district energy-subterranean networks of pipes that ferry water or steam between buildings for heating and cooling-isn't new. Instead of employing a typical boiler system, the offices in The Regrade rely primarily on an underground "eco-district" that carries recycled energy. As winter approaches, an innovative heat source will be keeping Amazon's corporate headquarters in Seattle warm.
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