How Kate Gallego is Keeping Phoenix Cool Without the Carbon Cost

The City of Phoenix has never been a city that thinks small. When Mayor Kate Gallego (D-AZ) says she wants Phoenix to become the most sustainable desert city on the planet, she means it, and a $75 million construction project breaking ground downtown is the latest proof.

On March 18, city and industry leaders gathered to mark the start of construction on Energy Center Phoenix Plant 4, a carbon-free chilled water facility being developed by energy infrastructure company Cordia.

The project is expected to come online by summer 2027.

Mayor Gallego highlighted the groundbreaking as a milestone not only for the city's climate goals but also for the Phoenix Bioscience Core, a growing downtown district home to research institutions and academic campuses.

Additionally, the new plant will add 10,200 tons of chilled-water cooling capacity to Cordia's existing downtown system, powered entirely by carbon-free electricity.

Beneficial to the State

Now, the timing is deliberate.

Cordia's current cooling infrastructure has been strained by rapid development in the Bioscience Core. The University of Arizona's (UofA) CAMI building and a new Arizona State University Health headquarters, currently in design, are among the projects driving demand higher.

Both universities are longstanding Cordia clients, with nine of their downtown Phoenix buildings already connected to the system.

Therefore, to make Plant 4 possible, the UofA agreed to lease land it owns to Cordia under a 50-year ground lease,  an arrangement that reflects the collaborative nature of the broader effort.

Cordia COO Jacob Graff described the project as a pivotal moment, saying the company is proud to help power the Core's evolution into a hub for research, healthcare, and innovation.

The facility is also part of Cordia's broader decarbonization timeline. The company aims to have all of its Phoenix chilled water plants running on carbon-free energy by 2029.

“Phoenix has an ambitious goal to be the most sustainable desert city on the planet,” Gallego had posted on X.