Cordia expands cooling empire as Phoenix heat demands new infrastructure
Cordia, a Phoenix-based energy infrastructure company which quietly underpins much of downtown Phoenix’s cooling infrastructure, is expanding its footprint through a new partnership with Arizona State University. The partnership will supply renewable district cooling to ASU’s new Health Headquarters in the Phoenix Bioscience Core.
The project, known internally as “Plant 4,” is a roughly $75 million investment that adds about 10,200 tons of additional chilling capacity to the area, according to Cordia CEO Earl Collins.
Overall, Cordia generates roughly $300 million in annual revenue across its 20 plants in 16 locations. Phoenix is its corporate headquarters, with about 10% of the company’s roughly 300 employees based in the Valley.
Cordia already serves five ASU campuses and has a longstanding relationship with the university, as well as with the city of Phoenix and Maricopa County.
Phoenix, one of the hottest major urban areas in the U.S., requires massive cooling capacity to keep buildings habitable and businesses running. Cordia’s model is to centralize that cooling in district energy plants that distribute chilled water through a network, rather than forcing each building to install and maintain its own system.
“It’s a lot easier to do that from a central plan than everybody trying to do that on their own,” Collins said.
The company has set a goal to be completely carbon-free by 2030 in Phoenix. Collins says the company is on track to meet that goal. In the Valley, that transition is driven largely by purchasing nuclear or renewable power and using electric-driven chillers to provide chilled water. Sustainability, however, is not just about emissions.
“Sustainability also means reducing our water consumption and really optimizing our operations to be as efficient as possible,” Collins said.
Cordia has been tweaking both technology and operations to meet that challenge. By making relatively small changes to how its plants are run, the company says it has been able to significantly cut water use.
“We’re really trying to leverage technology, both old and new, in how we operate our plants more efficiently,” Collins said.
Cordia’s underground reach in downtown Phoenix
Cordia’s operations in Phoenix also include what Collins describes as one of the “crown jewels” of the city’s sustainability infrastructure: a plant located beneath the Phoenix Convention Center that uses a massive thermal energy storage system. At night, when electricity demand and prices are lower, the plant makes ice that is then used to cool downtown buildings during the day.
Cordia’s national reach that includes plenty of high-profile projects.
The company in 2025 completed the acquisition of San Diego’s East Village District Plant, which serves commercial users such as Petco Park, the home field of MLB’s San Diego Padres.
Also in 2025, the company completed the acquisition of Duquesne University‘s thermal energy plant distribution system in a $50 million deal that included an amended, decades-long energy service agreement, according to the Pittsburgh Business Times.
In 2024, the company acquired San Francisco’s underground steam system in a unique, $1 transaction that paved the way for the city’s 21st-century clean energy future, San Francisco Business Times reported.