The first keynote speaker was Kairos Shen, Chief Planner at the BRA, who emphasized that the biggest challenge facing the creation of Eco Districts is partnerships. Shen stressed that the technoloical solutions already exist, but it's the partnerships that will allow them to be effective.
The second keynote speaker was John Aubrecht, President of the Longwood Medical Energy Collaborative, who represents Boston's greatest concentration of medical institutions, including over 2000 hospital beds. The concentration of critical energy users in the Longwood Medical Area (LMA) rely on the Medical Area Total Energy Plant (MATEP) for heating, cooling and electrical services. Aubrecht's presentation focused on building partnerships between LMA institutions, financial institutions, and energy markets. He also discussed the challenge of finding organizational strategies for the multiple stakeholders in an Eco District.
The panel on Eco Districts was moderated by Galen Nelson, Director of Market Development at the
Mass Clean Energy Center. Nelson discussed his time in Hamburg, Germany where an old grain silo was used to create an energy bunker that now
produces enough heat for 3000 households and electricity for 1000 homes. Other panelists included: Karthik Rao from
EnernNOC, who discussed how each individual building can contribute to local energy markets; Bruce Douglas, Vice President of
Natural Systems Utilities, who discussed the use of waste heat in sewer systems and capturing underutilized sources of energy throughout the city; Matthew Gardner, Director of
SustainServ, who discussed emerging technology used to measure the energy of a city and showed how it was applied in the
Innovation District; Charlie Reed, Director of
Boston Global Investors, who discussed his company's planning strategy for district energy in the Innovation District.
More panels discussing EcoDistricts beyond energy technology are forthcoming, including EcoDistricts in the context of water and organizational models. Stay tuned via the BRA
EcoDistricts page.