Current Activities

Building Tie-ins and Street Construction

Celebrate Business Success Award

2007 IDEA
Person of the Year

Renewable Energy Class for 6th Graders

2005 Environmental Initiative Award

Doghouse Days of Summer

Energy Tree

What is that billowing, white cloud?

Combined Heat and Power

Seminars and Meetings

Energy Tree is a unique collaboration between a heating and cooling utility, District Energy St. Paul, and its next-door neighbor, the Science Museum of Minnesota. This biomass educational initiative centers on St. Paul Cogeneration, a combined heat and power (CHP) plant that simultaneously produces heat and electricity using a biomass fuel, clean wood waste, collected from the Twin Cities metropolitan area. St. Paul Cogeneration is owned by Market Street Energy Company, a District Energy affiliate, and Cinergy Solutions.

While the CHP plant was still in its development stages, District Energy and the Science Museum realized the project presented a remarkable opportunity to educate the museum’s 1.25 million annual visitors and the general public about renewable energy, combined heat and power, natural resources and the environment. In May 2000, District Energy was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Forest Service to collaborate with the Science Museum and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on a comprehensive tree waste biomass energy education effort. Deliverables would include development of a master interpretive plan for guiding exhibit development and implementing a demonstration biomass interpretive planting.

Development of the interpretive plan occurred in tandem with the design of the new biomass CHP plant. Brainstorming sessions with the Science Museum and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources were enhanced through one-on-one community interviews and a series of community workshops designed to gather ideas, expectations and reactions to the CHP plant project. Workshop participants identified goals and key concepts for the CHP plant that were later incorporated into the final version of the plan.

One component of the plan was to have District Energy and the Science Museum plant an actual biomass crop that would eventually become a fuel source for the CHP plant. This goal became a reality in November 2000 when over 150 fast-growing poplar trees were planted on a small strip of Science Museum land that borders District Energy’s property. Starting in 2005, the Science Museum will harvest a portion of the trees every year to be chipped and burned in the adjacent CHP plant. The ash equivalent of the material will be returned to fertilize the biomass planting site. New trees will sprout from the stumps—a perfect example of sustainable, renewable energy.

Another key component of the plan was to tap into District Energy’s technical and operating skills and the Science Museum’s exhibit and educational skills to develop, design, fabricate and install several outdoor interpretive panels. This part of the plan was implemented in summer 2003 with the installation of three Energy Tree exhibit panels along Kellogg Boulevard in downtown Saint Paul.

Two of the Energy Tree exhibit panels are located on a Science Museum plaza that sits high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. The first panel explains how biomass crops (poplar, willow, alfalfa, corn, etc.) can be grown for fuel. Eighty feet below, a spotting scope directs your attention to the small grove of poplar trees planted in 2000 that are now over 15 feet tall. The second panel illustrates how the adjacent CHP plant uses a biomass crop—clean wood waste from industrial, construction and tree-trimming sources—to simultaneously produce heat and electricity. Heat is sold to District Energy for distribution to its downtown customers and electricity is sold to Xcel Energy.

A third exhibit panel, located on the sidewalk just north of the District Energy and CHP plants, discusses community energy and the evolution of the original facility from a producer of steam heat and electricity in 1906, to just steam in 1961, to hot water in 1983, and to hot and chilled water in 1993. With the 2003 startup of the adjacent CHP plant, the facility has come full circle and is once again producing heat and electricity in addition to chilled water for air conditioning

Collaboration with additional community organizations—including the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area and the St. Paul on the Mississippi Design Center—has encouraged District Energy and the Science Museum to expand their ideas for future Energy Tree interpretive exhibit panels. Additional exhibits will be installed over time as funding becomes available.

Children visiting the Science Museum of Minnesota eat their lunch in the shade of a new Energy Tree exhibit panel located on the plaza adjacent to the building. The plant is in the background. Energy Tree is a unique collaboration between a heating and cooling utility, District Energy St. Paul, and its next-door neighbor, the Science Museum of Minnesota. This biomass educational initiative centers on St. Paul Cogeneration, a combined heat and power (CHP) plant that simultaneously produces heat and electricity using a biomass fuel, clean wood waste, collected from the Twin Cities metropolitan area. St. Paul Cogeneration is owned by Market Street Energy Company, a District Energy affiliate, and Cinergy Solutions.

While the CHP plant was still in its development stages, District Energy and the Science Museum realized the project presented a remarkable opportunity to educate the museum’s 1.25 million annual visitors and the general public about renewable energy, combined heat and power, natural resources and the environment. In May 2000, District Energy was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Forest Service to collaborate with the Science Museum and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on a comprehensive tree waste biomass energy education effort. Deliverables would include development of a master interpretive plan for guiding exhibit development and implementing a demonstration biomass interpretive planting.

Development of the interpretive plan occurred in tandem with the design of the new biomass CHP plant. Brainstorming sessions with the Science Museum and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources were enhanced through one-on-one community interviews and a series of community workshops designed to gather ideas, expectations and reactions to the CHP plant project. Workshop participants identified goals and key concepts for the CHP plant that were later incorporated into the final version of the plan.

One component of the plan was to have District Energy and the Science Museum plant an actual biomass crop that would eventually become a fuel source for the CHP plant. This goal became a reality in November 2000 when over 150 fast-growing poplar trees were planted on a small strip of Science Museum land that borders District Energy’s property. Starting in 2005, the Science Museum will harvest a portion of the trees every year to be chipped and burned in the adjacent CHP plant. The ash equivalent of the material will be returned to fertilize the biomass planting site. New trees will sprout from the stumps—a perfect example of sustainable, renewable energy.

Another key component of the plan was to tap into District Energy’s technical and operating skills and the Science Museum’s exhibit and educational skills to develop, design, fabricate and install several outdoor interpretive panels. This part of the plan was implemented in summer 2003 with the installation of three Energy Tree exhibit panels along Kellogg Boulevard in downtown Saint Paul.

Two of the Energy Tree exhibit panels are located on a Science Museum plaza that sits high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. The first panel explains how biomass crops (poplar, willow, alfalfa, corn, etc.) can be grown for fuel. Eighty feet below, a spotting scope directs your attention to the small grove of poplar trees planted in 2000 that are now over 15 feet tall. The second panel illustrates how the adjacent CHP plant uses a biomass crop—clean wood waste from industrial, construction and tree-trimming sources—to simultaneously produce heat and electricity. Heat is sold to District Energy for distribution to its downtown customers and electricity is sold to Xcel Energy.

A third exhibit panel, located on the sidewalk just north of the District Energy and CHP plants, discusses community energy and the evolution of the original facility from a producer of steam heat and electricity in 1906, to just steam in 1961, to hot water in 1983, and to hot and chilled water in 1993. With the 2003 startup of the adjacent CHP plant, the facility has come full circle and is once again producing heat and electricity in addition to chilled water for air conditioning

Collaboration with additional community organizations—including the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area and the St. Paul on the Mississippi Design Center—has encouraged District Energy and the Science Museum to expand their ideas for future Energy Tree interpretive exhibit panels. Additional exhibits will be installed over time as funding becomes available.