Solar Thermal Heating and Cooling Project will Address Hospitals Cooling,Heating and Hot Water Needs
GEMCO has Announced the First Triple State Thermal Solar Cooling/Heating Project in Canada
Glenbarra Energy Management Corp (GEMCO) announced today that it has entered into a contract with Shouldice Hospital to provide the turnkey design of Canada’s first ever “Triple-State” absorption thermal Cooling/Heating system to be used in Canada. The system is designed to address the cooling, heating and domestic hot water needs of the hospital using energy from the sun.
The Shouldice project, located at 7750 Bayview Ave. in Toronto, will provide a live test center to showcase the viability of using this renewable technology and energy storage capability as an offset to energy currently provided from traditional fossil fuels such as natural gas and electricity. The core components of the system include 10 solar cooling machines and 141 Solar Thermal collectors. Based on preliminary energy modeling, the solar Cooling/Heating System is targeted to offset the following loads for the hospital: 36% Cooling, 44% Heating and 91% Domestic Hot Water and reduce CO² emissions annually by an estimated 150 tonnes – equivalent to removing 28 cars from the road per year.
Darren Cooper, President and CEO of GEMCO, explains the goal ultimately for GEMCO will be to utilize the experience, knowledge and data arising from this Cooling/Heating Project to roll out the technology across North America. According to Cooper, “Solar Cooling offers substantial environmental, financial and social benefits. These benefits include limiting the use of traditional energy-guzzling cooling systems that use ozone damaging refrigerants as well as offsetting electricity use during peak billing periods where there may be electrical grid overloads and black outs”. Peak load electricity use during the summer months has been identified as a key element of Ontario’s energy conservation and demand management strategy as set by the Province. The expectation for this project is to achieve a reduction of 80+% in peak cooling for the building.
GEMCO, an Ontario based company, is one of North America’s largest turnkey providers of Green Energy Solutions for commercial, industrial, institutional and residential markets. GEMCO under its subsidiary Glenbarra Energy has already built and completed over 1.5 MW of solar projects comprising some of the largest solar systems in the GTA, including Sick Kids Hospital and the University of Toronto. For the Shouldice project GEMCO will be partnered with world leaders in the design and manufacturer of Solar Hot Water and Cooling products, ClimateWell, AB, and Kingspan Solar. GEMCO will also be partnered with SAIC Canada and Queens University’s Solar Calorimetry Laboratory on this project to track the long term performance of the Cooling/Heating system.
Cooper is confident, stating that “Kingspan and ClimateWell’s success in commercializing their solar technology in Europe, Middle East and Australia combined with GEMCO’s experience with large commercial turnkey solar installations in Ontario and SAIC Canada and Queens University engineering and analytical expertise will lead the way in the implementation of solar cooling/heating technology to meet the needs of the North American energy market leading to the acceptance and commercialization of this innovative and promising technology”.
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