Washington Post
Summary
Deep lake water cooling (DLWC) is used to cool over 100 buildings in the city. It saves enough
electricity to power a town of 25,000 — and it’s so popular the city is pursuing an expansion.
With just minutes left in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA finals, the Toronto Raptors drained a 16-foot jumper to pull ahead by six points. Hardly a soul was sitting down or silent as fans cheered the team toward Canada’s first basketball championship.
But the sellout crowd also posed a challenge. The National Basketball Association requires arenas to be chilled to between 65 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit. And, left unchecked, the arena’s 20,144 attendees were likely to produce a sweltering mess that would set off alarms at league headquarters.
“People bring with them a lot of body heat,” said Kyle Lamkey, director of engineering for the arena. “Cooling is probably one of the most critical parts of our building.”
But unlike other sports venues, Scotiabank Arena doesn’t keep its temperatures in check using air conditioners. Toronto is home to the world’s largest deep lake water cooling (DLWC) system.
Conceptually, the technology is relatively simple. Instead of relying on energy-intensive compressors and chillers to dissipate heat from buildings, DLWC uses water from nearby Lake Ontario to whisk away the warmth.
The system launched in 2004 with only a handful of customers in the city, but it now cools over 100 downtown buildings, ranging from City Hall and Toronto General Hospital to hotels and even a brewery.
Enwave, the company that owns and operates Toronto’s DLWC, says the system already saves 90,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity use annually — roughly enough to power a town of 25,000. It is so popular that the city has nearly reached capacity and recently committed to an expansion.
“It’s a big investment,” said Carlyle Coutinho, president of Enwave, of the upcoming (CAD) $100 million project. But he said, “it would be challenging to keep growing commercially without increasing the baseload.”
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