Vancouver taps sewage heat to power district heating, earning top award

False Creek Neighborhood Energy Utility, a city-owned district-energy provider that began serving the 2010 Olympic Village, now supplies heat to 47 buildings across Southeast False Creek, Mount Pleasant and the Flats. A 2024 expansion added two high-efficiency heat pumps, tripling sewage-heat recovery capacity to 9.8 MW. This upgrade lifted system efficiency from 103% to 148% and increased renewable energy contribution to 73% in 2025.

Compared with a 2007 baseline, the system avoided 7,070 tons of CO₂ emissions. The utility’s success earned the International District Energy Association’s System of the Year award and is encouraging neighboring municipalities such as Burnaby, Surrey and New Westminster to consider comparable waste-heat projects. The Energy Center also serves as an educational hub for visitors from across Canada and abroad.