A Visceral Need to Understand How Things Work
It won’t come as a shock to anyone who knows an engineer that Ted says he started playing with building toys of all kinds—Lincoln Logs, LEGO and erector sets and model trains—as young as he can remember. He describes his interest in these things as “a visceral need to interact with things, to understand how things work, and, ultimately, a need to create.” This call to create, in his opinion, is what gets many people through the years of difficult school that it takes to have a career in engineering.
This calling to a career in engineering carried Ted through four years of an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at Union College and then a few more years of part-time graduate school for mechanical engineering at Drexel University where he attended classes at night while working for the Philadelphia Electric Company (now PECO Energy). At one of his first summer jobs during his undergraduate years, he was working at a PECO power plant and going in at night. During an early trip to work that summer, he remembers seeing the huge facility, its lights visible in the darkness over a mile away. “I got this realization that this is the source of energy and power for the entire city. Being a part of that, I thought, was incredibly cool.”
His time working for PECO Energy brought him up close and personal with Philly’s efforts in the early 1980s to transition away from coal and #6 fuel oil to natural gas and nuclear power generation. But the administrative hurdles that came from working in nuclear energy became increasingly frustrating, as did his less-than-ideal bike commute near the Philadelphia airport. (Repairing and maintaining his own bike is a passion of his that he feels comes from the same drive as his interest in engineering.)
Becoming Princeton’s Unofficial Energy Historian
When Princeton’s ad found its way to him in 1984, he was ready to try something new. As Ted describes it, there were three things that made taking the job to oversee the construction of a new cogeneration plant, appealing to him:
“First, I really connected with the improved efficiency that a cogeneration plant had over a central utility plant.
“Second, I thought, there's probably 20 of me at the Philadelphia Electric Company, but at Princeton, they didn't have anybody with that kind of skill set or role. I could bring things that they didn't have at all.
“Third, it was an exciting thing to be able to build a power plant, and then the job description was to stick around to help manage energy systems on campus. It was a wonderful career move. Really, really exciting."
After testing out potential bike commutes with Nancy and finding a house about 7.5 miles, or “the perfect bike commute,” away from campus, Ted started working on Princeton’s cogeneration plant. He spent the next 30 years of his career leading energy initiatives on campus.
While he may have been hired to oversee the construction of Princeton’s cogeneration plant, Ted also became the de facto historian of energy’s “arc of history” at the University. From the 1740s, when Princeton was burning firewood for fuel to the steam-driven chillers installed in the late-1960s that are still in operation today, Ted can explain in engaging detail the University’s various energy transitions that came before his arrival in the 1990s. He once gave a TED-style talk on the topic to an audience of over 700 people, “no notes, just riffing on energy for 20 minutes.”
High-Stakes Test: Weathering the Storm with District Energy
Among his most visible accomplishments at Princeton was helping the university prepare for the unexpected and stay resilient when disaster struck. After an approximately 10-year planning period, and a few more years of building, the cogeneration system that Ted joined Princeton to help build came online in October of 1996. And 16 years later, when Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012, Princeton’s district energy microgrid proved its worth.
“We were able to get through Hurricane Sandy with the lights on, with the chilled water running, with the steam running. We were able to be a place of refuge for the community,” Ted recalled. “That’s one of the really awesome things district energy systems can do. They can be more reliable than even the local utility.”
While over 20 million people across eight states lost power, Princeton provided shelter, recharging stations and hot meals for first responders. That performance was the result of years of planning, investment in thermal storage and a cogeneration system that Ted helped design and operate.
Leading the Transition to the Future
In recent years, Ted helped guide Princeton’s most ambitious transformation yet: transitioning from steam to hot water distribution and building out a geo-exchange system to support the university’s carbon neutrality goal by 2046.
“Three things triangulated to inspire a major change on Princeton campus,” Ted explained. “Aging infrastructure, institutional growth and a commitment to carbon neutrality... so that says get away from steam, switch to district hot water and add a heat pump facility.”
Ted’s impact has always extended far beyond Princeton’s campus. A longtime IDEA contributor, board member and presenter—from Dubai to Washington, DC—he has been called “IDEA’s secret weapon” by many, including IDEA’s President and CEO, Rob Thornton, for his rare ability to make complex systems relatable to any audience. As he put it: “If I teach you the vocabulary, you're going to be able to help other people move forward too... reach back and bring somebody up a level.”
Ted also is the first to acknowledge the impact that IDEA has had on him. When speaking about becoming IDEA’s newest “Norm,” he reflects on the impact many of the previous winners of this award have had on him. He spent decades working closely with last year’s recipient, Tom Nyquist, former executive director of engineering and campus energy at Princeton. And he thinks it's highly likely that he has had professional and personal interactions with all of the award winners going back at least 30 years.
“I think I’ve shaken hands with all of them. I’ve seen them at IDEA conferences and had the opportunity to learn from them throughout the years, it's a long line of incredible people.”
He’s also a fierce advocate for mentoring the next generation. Mary Cotter, current undergraduate student at the University of Virginia and a member of the inaugural class of women who received IDEA’s Patti Wilson Leadership Award, cites Ted’s urging her to pursue a summer internship opportunity with IDEA as an integral part of her interest in pursuing a future career in district energy.
Finding the Next Place to Create
In 2024, Ted stepped down from Princeton to launch Borer Energy Engineering, a consultancy aimed at helping institutions, cities and companies reduce their carbon footprints through practical, proven energy strategies with a view for long term sustainability.
“If I leave Princeton, I might be able to make a bigger difference in the world,” he said, describing his rationale when he began thinking about leaving the institution where he had spent over three decades. “That’s what I would like to do—really work to lower anthropogenic climate change, ideally on a global scale.”
And true to his spirit, he’s not slowing down. Whether it’s advising a university, helping design systems for a pharmaceutical campus, or volunteering his time building water purification projects in Mexico, Ted continues to help create a more sustainable world one smart, thoughtful system at a time.
From the glow of a power plant at night to the bright lights of the IDEA stage, Ted Borer’s journey has always been powered by curiosity, humility, and a deep sense of responsibility. As the 2025 Norm Taylor Award winner, he joins a distinguished legacy in a style that is entirely his own.