NYCHA Design-Build Heating Replacement Program Eastchester Gardens and Jackson Developments – Largest Geothermal Heating System in New York
The CSA Group and Adam’s European design-build team were selected by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to implement the largest geothermal heating system in New York. This project is aligned with the New York State and New York City’s goal to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions by 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050.
Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and certain synthetic chemicals, trap some of the Earth’s outgoing energy, thus retaining heat in the atmosphere. This heat trapping causes changes in the radiative balance of the Earth—the balance between energy received from the sun and emitted from Earth. This change causes warming and is affecting various aspects of climate, including surface air, ocean temperatures, precipitation, and sea levels. Human health, agriculture, water resources, forests, wildlife, and coastal areas are all vulnerable to climate change.
This $60 million Building Heating System project is being implemented at Eastchester Gardens and Jackson housing developments in the Bronx. The team includes CSA Group as the A/E designer, Adam’s European Contracting Inc. (GC) and Kordun Construction Corp. (Mechanical) as the major contractors and Matrix New World as the Civil/Environmental subconsultant.
To reduce GHG emissions at the NYCHA developments, CSA designed a highly efficient, all-electric, closed-loop, vertical geothermal heat pump system for the heating of all domestic water at 1,744 apartments in 17 apartment buildings, and new and efficient boilers for the central steam plants in each development. This will be the first project of its kind at NYCHA and one of the largest geothermal heat pump systems in the Northeast U.S.
Geothermal heating and cooling systems use electrical energy and operate 3 to 4 times more efficiently than the electrical energy consumed. Using geothermal energy produces zero GHG emissions on site. These systems still contribute indirectly to GHG emissions tied to the production of the electricity used to operate the system. However, utilities produce electricity with a much lower concentration of GHG, resulting from a mix of fuels that includes a significant percentage of renewables (hydropower, solar and wind), that continues to increase as more fossil fuel generating plants are retired.