New buildings going up on Bellingham’s redeveloped waterfront won’t have furnaces.

Instead, new residential and commercial buildings will get their heat from the Puget Sound Energy plant that sends plumes of steam and lots of heat into the atmosphere.

That heat had been wasted, and the Port of Bellingham along with Sustainable Connections saw an opportunity to use it for new development.

Port spokesperson Mike Hogan says crews began laying pipes for the system in 2018, and it will be functional as new condominiums, affordable housing and other buildings open up.

He says the system could easily be converted to another central heat source if PSE eventually decides to retire the natural gas-fired power plant.