Trends from the show floor: IDEA2025 district energy conference

The IDEA2025 conference brought nearly 1,000 district energy experts from around the globe to Minneapolis, Minn., this June. The conference offered a unique opportunity to interact with senior decision-makers in district energy, distributed generation, combined heat and power, microgrids, sustainable energy, waste heat recovery, and energy efficiency. Since its inception in 1909, IDEA has been providing leadership in these fields.

With significant district energy activity in urban areas like Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Rochester, Minn., this region is considered a hotbed of innovation in district energy technology and construction, especially decarbonization and urban sustainability. The ongoing investment in expanding and modernizing existing systems while implementing new ones makes Minnesota an epicenter of district energy growth with a rich history of success in the industry.

The exhibit hall at IDEA2025 featured the newest technologies, equipment, and practical advice from the best business partners in the industry. IDEA considers the exhibit hall an extension of attendee education, encouraging attendees to visit and meet with vendors and suppliers as much as possible during their stay. The event's theme, "Aggregate. Integrate. Innovate," encapsulates the spirit of the conference.

Mazzetti is keenly interested in IDEA2025 due to its focus on an important vertical to our business, a growing market, and the challenges and opportunities to electrify and decarbonize at scale. The addition of renewable energy production and storage, such as microgrids, to the mix is crucial for scaling up. The conference provided an excellent opportunity to meet and greet potential partners and clients, learn about new products and strategies to drive owner and market-level goals, and understand the trends and issues facing this part of the industry.

Electrification and decarbonization are still in the earlier stages of market adaptation and acceptance as strategies to tackle an uncertain energy future, climate change, and the desire for resiliency in our central plant systems. Buildings and central plants represent a large opportunity to reduce or mitigate carbon emissions associated with the built environment, which is one of the biggest users of electricity and largest emitters of carbon. However, electrification is only one piece of a much larger and more complex puzzle. It challenges us to rethink how we generate, transmit, distribute, and store electricity.

The journey toward electrification and decarbonization is not without its challenges (see graphic below). New system types such as HRCs and Air Source heat pumps, and the addition of massive thermal energy storage tanks require new ways of thinking about plant operations. These systems impact the size of a building's electrical service and the approach for emergency systems, with reliability being of utmost importance at acute care health facilities.

Energy production and storage, particularly through microgrids, play a vital role in mission-critical facilities. Recent projects by Mazzetti highlight the importance of integrating these systems to ensure reliability and efficiency.

3 energy technology innovations from the IDEA2025 show floor

While walking the IDEA2025 show floor, I learned about dozens of new products and technology innovations that could be true game changers for the energy industry. Here are three advancements that especially caught my eye (for more details, watch my video from the show floor): 

• Hyaxiom
  • Product Name: PureCell® Model 400
  • What does it do? Generation of electricity or heat through an electrochemical reaction versus combustion.
  • Innovation: Converts the chemical energy of a fuel into electricity, either using hydrogen directly if available or with hydrogen “reformed” from natural gas.
  • https://hyaxiom.com

• HT Material Science
  • Product Name: Maxwell®
  • What does it do? HT promotes on their website that their drop in additive to closed loop hydronic systems enhances heat transfer and reduces energy consumption and carbon emissions.
  • Innovation:  Utilizes sub-micron aluminum oxide particles to create a “nanofluid.”
  • https://htmaterialsscience.com

• Huber Technology
  • Product Name: HUBER Heat Exchanger RoWin
  • What does it do? This heat exchanger “mines” heat from building wastewater flows. 
  • Innovation: Cleanly and effectively captures a waste heat stream as part of a holistic solution to decarbonize buildings. 
  • https://www.huber-se.com/en-us

About the Author
Jamie Qualk is Associate Princiapal at Mazzetti. He manages healthcare design projects for the firm, including large scale central utility and district energy plants. Jamie on LinkedIn.

Note: This editorial report is not an endorsement of products or claims made in this article.