Enwave
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Enwave is a private corporation jointly owned by the City of Toronto and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and is one of the largest district energy systems in North America. Enwave was formed after the restructuring of the Toronto District Heating Corporation.
[edit] Deep Lake Water Cooling System
Enwave's Deep Lake Water Cooling system uses the cold energy from Lake Ontario to cool buildings in downtown Toronto. Some customers include the Toronto-Dominion Centre, Royal Bank Plaza, Metro Toronto Convention Centre and the Air Canada Centre. The system has enough power to air condition 100 office buildings or 32 million square feet (3 million m²) of building space. It is the largest renewable lake source cooling system of its kind in North America.
The cooling system is a clean, renewable, and reliable energy source. Compared to traditional air-conditioning, Deep Lake Water Cooling reduces electricity use by 75%, and will eliminate 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of taking 8,000 cars off the streets.
The lake water serves dual purposes as drinking water for Toronto and as a source of naturally cool energy. Enwave draws water from a permanent, renewable level of icy-cold water (4 °C) 83 metres below Lake Ontario. Through a heat transfer process at Toronto's John Street Pumping Station, cold energy from the lake water - but not the actual water itself - is used to air condition major buildings in Toronto's downtown core.
This system was officially launched on August 17, 2004 at Steam Whistle Brewing, one of Enwave's customers. In support of Deep Lake Water Cooling (DLWC), the launch was attended by actor and renewable energy activist Alec Baldwin, Ontario Minister of Energy Dwight Duncan, Canadian Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Joe Volpe, and Toronto Deputy Mayor Sandra Bussin, among other business leaders and government officials. The launch was delayed as a publicity stunt by approximately one month to coincide with the anniversary of the 2003 blackout.
If Enwave reaches its projected power by 2008 there would be a savings in electricity equal to the usage of 8,000 homes per year.
