Timeline: 2014 onwards.
Hamilton Utilities Corporation is expanding its district energy services throughout the downtown core with the purchase of the City’s District Cooling Energy Assets. HCE Energy delivers a wide range of district energy solutions throughout the City of Hamilton. HCE Energy Inc. will now provide centralized cooling and heating to Hamilton Place, Hamilton Convention Centre, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, City Hall and a number of other landmark downtown locations.
McMaster District Energy System- The district energy system designed to serve these and other MIP properties to come comprises the following:
- A geo-exchange field of 81 500-foot-deep boreholes integrated with four Multi-stack heat pumps, located in the central plant in the Atrium building basement, with a 137 kW capacity in heating mode and a 50-ton capacity in cooling mode
- 12,000 square feet of solar wall at the CanmetMATERIALS building that acts as a huge air duct, heating the air drawn through it via convection
- 208 solar thermal collection panels on the roof of CanmetMATERIALS used for supplying domestic hot water and hot water for space heating, with excess heat used to replenish the geo-exchange fields
- Three 360 kW natural gas-fired hot water boilers and an additional 500 kW condensing boiler, all located at the Atrium plant, to provide conventional backup to the heating loop
- One 300-ton and a 285-ton centrifugal chiller, located at the Atrium plant, to supplement the buildings’ cooling needs
How can District Energy System help mitigate climate change?
A district energy system is a type of heating and cooling structure that generates energy in a centralized location and then distributes it through a network of underground insulated pipes.
When connected to renewable energy sources like waste heat, thermal storage, power grids, thermal grids and heat pumps, a district energy system can reduce the usage of fossil fuels to heat and cool the buildings and help meet a city’s decarbonization goals.
Learn more Explore more actions
Municipality: Hamilton
Action: Net zero carbon district energy systems
Category: Energy