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.
Client:
Noventa Energy Partners
Contract Type:
Design-Build
The hospital is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 250,000 tonnes over the next 30 years, replacing 1.35 million cubic meters of natural gas, 143,000 megawatt hours of electricity consumption, and 1.4 million cubic meters of water consumption, equivalent to 560 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
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.
The Toronto Western project was funded with the assistance of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, the VanCity Community Investment Bank, and the Low Carbon Economy Fund, a $2 billion fund to promote clean growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
