ORLANDO, Fla. — Dennis Fotinos was elected 2008-2009 chair of the International District Energy Association (IDEA) at the organization’s annual meeting held at its 99th Annual Conference & Trade Show in Orlando, Fla. Eight members also were elected or re-elected to the 21-member board.

Fotinos is president and CEO of Enwave Energy Corp., one of the largest district energy systems in North America. Under his leadership, Enwave developed the Deep Lake Water Cooling project in Toronto. He previously served as vice-chair of IDEA and has been an IDEA member since 1998.

Juan Ontiveros of the University of Texas at Austin was elected vice chair, David Toombs of Citizens Thermal Energy, was elected second vice chair and Thomas Guglielmi of NRG Thermal LLC was re-elected secretary/treasurer, all one-year terms. Robert Smith of RMF Engineering in Baltimore will serve as immediate past chair. Newly elected and re-elected board members to serve three-year terms are Johnathan Coleman, JA Coleman LLC; Robert Maffei, Perma-Pipe; Aurel Selezeanu, Duke University; and Patricia Wilson, Affiliated Engineers Inc.

District energy is an efficient, environmentally responsible method of heating and cooling buildings. District energy systems produce steam, hot water or chilled water at a central plant. The steam or water is then piped underground to individual buildings within a designated area for heating, cooling or use in industrial processes.

The IDEA, with headquarters near Boston, is a nonprofit association with more than 1,000 district heating and cooling executives, managers, engineers, consultants and equipment suppliers from 25 countries. For more on IDEA, go to www.districtenergy.org.