Green News

globalnational.com
Published: Monday, July 24, 2006

TORONTO -- It extracts cold, frigid water from Lake Ontario, and through a high-tech process, cools an entire building, in addition to producing clean, drinkable water.

The result is a green air-conditioning system that reduces energy use by 90 per cent -- and starting Monday, Toronto's Metro Hall will become the first public building in Canada to use the Deep Lake Water Cooling (DLWC) system, developed by Toronto-based Enwave Energy Corporation.

Over a dozen other buildings -- all private, mostly commercial buildings and condominums -- are now using the system, including the Air Canada Centre, the TD Centre and The Bay store on Queen Street. Another 28 buildings -- Ontario's legislative building Queen's Park among them -- are slated to employ the system by the end of the year, and another four by 2008.

"I don't know if it's environmental consciousness or people are afraid that electricity prices are going to go up," says Enwave president and CEO Dennis Fotinos, "but there's this huge bandwagon effect."

DLWC is the largest system of its kind in the world, capable of servicing a large swath of downtown Toronto. Three massive pipes extend 83 metres below the surface of Lake Ontario and extract water from its frigid depths, where the temperature is a consistent 4 C. By way of an energy-transfer station, cold-air energy is extracted and distributed to Enwave's customers for air conditioning, while the clean, drinkable water continues on its way into the municipal supply.

It's an exceptionally clean, green solution for an urban jungle like Toronto, where most citizens feel the lake is only good for boating, fireworks-watching and, if you're brave, swimming.

The DLWC makes use of a renewable resource, is CFC-free, and requires 90% less electricity to operate than conventional cooling equipment, resulting in significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

Several new residential developments in downtown Toronto have announced that they will use the DLWC system, with much fanfare, including the highly anticipated 70-storey Trump International Hotel & Tower, currently under development.

"If you're talking about living green, you have to talk about it in the macro perspective," says Jamie James, an environmental consultant for Toronto condominum developer Tridel, which recently used the DLWC cooling system for its 24-storey condo, 'Element.'

"If we can create more energy-efficient homes, we can reduce urban air pollution and we can improve the province's ability to deliver stable electricity."

Indeed, this method of cooling alone is expected to cut down energy consumption at Element by about half a million kilowatt-hours per year.

Aside from the obvious cost savings, the bonus for residents is that their heating and cooling will not be seasonal, as in typical condos, but rather available all year round. And, certainly, no one will miss the extra noise, pollution and humidity a giant chiller would generate at the juncture of Toronto's busy sports and entertainment districts.

"We're now in an age where we have to look at building performance," James adds, "because that also impacts quality of life in the city,"

Overall, Element will outperform national energy standards by about 25%, which qualifies Tridel for a $60,000 grant from Natural Resources Canada, under its Commercial Building Incentive Program (far less than the estimated half-million-dollar premium it cost to construct Element -- a cost the company absorbed when the City turned down its request to build a few storeys higher than the planned 24). Of course, they could have just raised the prices of the suites, but Mr. James says it was important to the developer to keep them at market prices; the majority sold for between $192,000 and $500,000 -- what he refers to as "mainstreaming green."

For its efforts, Element won the 2006 Green Toronto Award for energy conservation and was featured on the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet program this past spring.

When the Trump building eventually goes up, this symbol of luxury and excess will actually be helping reduce harmful emissions by 3,224 tonnes per year and reduce energy consumption by close to three-million kilowatt-hours -- an amount comparable to the electricity used by nearly 300 homes -- by cooling its residences, hotel rooms, spa, business centre and restaurants with DLWC.

Fotinos, who recently returned from an industry conference in Nashville, says Toronto is seen as "a real leader" in forward thinking and environmentally friendly energy solutions. At the same time, though he lauds his clients' efforts at being green, he isn't sure that's their only -- or even their most important -- motivation for using DLWC.

"At the end of the day," he says, "the reason they do it is because it makes economic sense."

Fotinos will be at Metro Hall with Toronto Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone Monday to "flip the switch" and activate the cool air system.