The lake water serves dual purposes as drinking water for Toronto and as a source of naturally cool energy. Developed by Enwave, the system draws water from a permanent, renewable level of cold water (4° C.) 83-metres below Lake Ontario. Through a heat transfer process at the city's 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.
Toronto-based Enwave is a private corporation co-owned by the City of Toronto and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS).
"This is truly the energy of the future — available today," said Enwave President Dennis Fotinos. "It offers so many benefits to businesses, developers, public sector buildings, the environment and the city of Toronto. It's clean, renewable, reliable energy. Compared to traditional air-conditioning, Deep Lake Water Cooling reduces electricity use by 75 percent, and will eliminate 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of taking 8,000 cars off of the streets of Toronto."
Enwave's current customer base of 130 buildings in Toronto's core include such high profile buildings as the Air Canada Centre, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Royal Bank Plaza, TD Centre and Steam Whistle Brewing.
