Bird led the design and construction of the Toronto Western Hospital wastewater energy transfer (“WET”), which uses thermal energy from wastewater flowing through the sewer to supply up to 90 percent of the campus' heating and cooling needs. Currently the world's largest raw wastewater energy transfer project, the system will provide over 19MW of low-carbon thermal energy to the hospital facility.
On estime que l'hôpital réduira les émissions de gaz à effet de serre de plus de 250 000 tonnes au cours des 30 prochaines années, en remplaçant 1,35 million de mètres cubes de gaz naturel, 143 000 mégawattheures de consommation d'électricité et 1,4 million de mètres cubes de consommation d'eau, soit l'équivalent de 560 piscines de taille olympique.
Located in downtown Toronto - one of North America's densest urban centres - this complex project included the construction of a 38-metre-deep wet well at an existing vortex chamber location for the new wastewater screening and pumping system, which was connected to the 120” diameter concrete sewer main. An existing building also required renovations to house 16 new Huber wastewater heat exchangers and five chiller/heat pumps for the new energy transfer station. Within 30 mechanical rooms spread over five building pavilions of the existing hospital, Bird installed new piping and control systems, and replaced air handling units (AHUs) coils.
The Bird team self-performed all major scopes, including mechanical, electrical, utilities, insulation, concrete and formwork. The team's expertise brought valuable knowledge to the execution of the work, helping to manage risk and improving health, safety and environmental outcomes as well as delivering at the high quality needed to make the project successful.
Le projet Toronto Western a été financé avec l'aide de la Banque canadienne de l'infrastructure, de la VanCity Community Investment Bank et du Low Carbon Economy Fund, un fonds de $2 milliards destiné à promouvoir une croissance propre et à réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre.
