Vicinity Kendall, Cambridge: 35 MW river-source heat pump for district steam, installation targeted by 2028
Vicinity Energy (4 Nov 2025): construction has started on a 35 MW river-source heat pump at the Kendall plant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to make district steam from the Charles River. Everllence (formerly MAN Energy Solutions) supplies the heat pump. Installation is targeted by 2028. This is under construction, and it is district steam rather than a factory process line.
Engineering data
- Case type
- Public-source case
- Data status
- public_source
- Industry
- District heating
- Source temperature
- Not disclosed
- Sink temperature
- Not disclosed
- Temperature lift
- Not applicable
- Heating or cooling duty
- 35000 kW
- Architecture
- River-source industrial heat pump for a district steam network; Everllence heat pump, DCO Energy installation
- Result status
- Construction agreements were announced on 4 Nov 2025. Demolition of a gas boiler was described as underway. Heat-pump installation is targeted by 2028. No operating performance exists.
- Key risk
- 35 MW is a planned nameplate, not a measured steam output. River-source district steam is not the same duty as factory process steam at 150–180°C.
- Existing system
- Existing Kendall district-steam plant; a natural-gas boiler is being removed to make room for the heat pump
- Refrigerant
- Not stated in the construction note used here
- COP
- Not disclosed
- Annual savings
- Not stated as a measured total; the plant is not operating
- Estimated payback
- Not disclosed
Project background
Vicinity Energy, DCO Energy, and Everllence announced an industrial heat-pump complex for the Kendall Square district-energy plant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The library files it under district heating and under construction. It is steam, but the customer is a city steam network.
Narrative inputs
Planned capacity: 35 MW thermal from river water to district steam. Temperatures, refrigerant, COP, and hours are not in the 4 Nov 2025 note.
Heat pump solution
A river-water heat pump will sit at the existing Kendall plant and use the site's electrical interconnection. One gas boiler is removed. The company's name for the product is eSteam. Installation work is assigned to DCO; the heat pump supplier is Everllence.
COP & savings
There is no operating COP. The only scale figure is the announced 35 MW. A separate company remark about progress elsewhere is not copied here as performance of Kendall.
Investment / ROI notes
No investment or payback is in the construction note used here.