| District Energy Biographies
Gaston Gourdeau 1883-1957 |
| Bulletin of the NDHA 34 (October 1948):11 |
|
| District Energy Biographies
Gaston Gourdeau 1883-1957 |
| Bulletin of the NDHA 34 (October 1948):11 |
Gaston Gourdeau was born 19 February 1883 in S.-Cosme-de-Vair, France. He was the son of a maitre d'hotel, but graduated from the engineering course of the École des arts et métiers and also from the École supérieur de electricité.He began working for Compagnie du Métropolitain de Paris (the Parisian subway system) and in 1907 joined the staff of Forges et Ateliers de construction électriques de Jeumont, where he was director at the time of the first world war. In 1911 he became a member of the Society of Civil Engineers of France.
He was mobilized in 1914 and received the Croix de Guerre for his service in the ministries of Armaments and Commerce & Industry. He took an active role in French-English conferences for the organization and supply of war plants. After the war he took an active role in the study and preparation of the economic clauses of the Treaty of Versaille in 1919. He was made an officer of the Legion of Honor and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
After the war devoted himself to the problem of district heating, and became its foremost proponent in France. In 1925 he founded the Compagnie General Fran&cced;aise de Chauffage Urbain, which planned the installation of systems throughout France. The first project was the Compagnie parisienne de chauffage urbain (CPCU), which he founded in 1928 and which is today one of the largest district heating companies in the world.
Gourdeau held many important positions with the with the French Government before his death in Paris on 8 October 1957.
Bulletin of the NDHA 34 (October 1948):11Dictionnaire de Biographie Francaise
My thanks to Dominique Bricka, retired administrative director of the CPCU, for information on M. Gourdeau.