New York Wants to Make Use of Its Oppressive Subway Heat
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New York Wants to Make Use of Its Oppressive Subway Heat
New York City and the MTA are studying a possible thermal energy network in Lower Manhattan, hoping to capture excess heat from subway platforms and store it for use in public buildings during the winter.
August 13, 2026 •
Jared Brey
(Adobe Stock)
In Brief:
New York is exploring whether to create a thermal energy network at a transit station in Lower Manhattan.
The network would help cool subway platforms while storing excess heat for use in public buildings.
It would be the first thermal energy network created as part of a transit system in the U.S.
July was the hottest month ever recorded in the United States, and the evidence was there on the glistening foreheads of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, and other local leaders as they stood on a subway platform in Lower Manhattan for a press conference earlier this week.
They announced that they were planning to study the possibility of cooling the city’s subway platforms while capturing their heat to use in public buildings during the winter, using a thermal energy network or TEN. The city will commission a feasibility study this fall to examine the cost of building a thermal energy network and the possible benefits to the city in terms of reduced fossil fuel usage and lower heating costs.
Mamdani and Lieber announced the study as part of a broader plan to revitalize the Chambers Street station, one of the oldest stations in New York. The Chambers Street station dates to 1913 and has been plagued by dilapidation and excessive heat for years. Quoting a social media user, Mamdani referred to it as “the stuff of nightmares.” The New York state government and MTA are using proceeds from congestion pricing, which charges drivers to enter parts of Lower Manhattan, to pay for the station upgrades.
Chambers Street station and the adjoined Brooklyn Bridge—City Hall station sit below a complex of public buildings, including the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building. Officials say it’s a good place to test out a thermal energy network partly because it has an unused subway platform, so work could be done without disrupting train service, and partly because of the proximity between the stations they want to cool and the buildings they want to heat.
A thermal energy network works by capturing heat and storing it for later use. At the Brooklyn Bridge—City Hall/Chambers Street complex, it would work by installing radiant cooling panels on the platforms, which would draw heat into holes drilled into the bedrock, possibly as deep as 600 feet. Rock can be heated to very high temperatures, and because it’s deep in the earth, it can maintain those temperatures for a long time. That heat could then be released into public buildings in the cold months, reducing fossil fuel usage and lowering operational costs.
“You’re basically using the earth like a battery,” says Yume Kitasei, commissioner of New York’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
Thermal energy networks are already in use in other places in New York, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral. They’re also used in transit systems in London. If the MTA and the city move ahead with the Chambers Street thermal energy network, it would be the first one built as part of a U.S. transit system.
First they have to figure out how much it would cost to build, and how much benefit it would provide in terms of reduced heating costs and cooler subway platforms. The city spends about $1.4 million a year just to heat the municipal building above the station, so the potential cost savings are significant. But different types of bedrock hold heat in different ways, Kitasei says. The feasibility study, which the city plans to award to a contractor this fall, will help illustrate what’s possible to achieve.
“We’re investigating both sides of the equation — the actual mechanics of doing it, how big a lift that would be, and how much we would get out of it in terms of efficiency,” Kitasei says. “Theoretically it works, but is it going to work efficiently enough that it’s worth the cost of actually doing this?”
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Jared Brey
Jared Brey is a senior staff writer for...