Bird Construction, a leading Canadian construction company, announced this Tuesday it entered into an Alliance Agreement with the renewable energy company Noventa Energy Partners.
Firstly, the alliance aims to deploy and jointly pursue wastewater energy transfer (WET) projects. WET is indeed an untapped renewable energy source that is underutilized in North America. It has the potential to supply over 350 billion kilowatt-hours of low carbon thermal energy, therefore allowing buildings to help mitigate carbon emissions.
Particularly for the alliance, the projects will deploy the Huber ThermWin System, for which Noventa Energy is the exclusive distributor in Canada and the United States. According to the statement, the alliance has around $500 million and 150MW of potential opportunities.
Moreover, the alliance comes just as Noventa Energy closed financing for its Toronto Western Hospital WET project; the world’s largest WET project, with a value of $42.9 million. Once complete, it will provide over 19MW of low-carbon thermal energy to the hospital facility; which is approximately 90 percent of the hospital’s heating and cooling requirements.
After the deployment of the solution, the hospital will see a cumulative reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of more than 250,000 tons. Enough to displace 1.35 million cubic meters of natural gas; 143,000 megawatt hours of electricity consumption, and 1.4 million cubic meters in water usage; the equivalent of 560 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
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Bird Construction recognizes a big opportunity in the Alliance
Specifically for the Toronto hospital, the WET project will include the construction of an underground vault. It will house 16 Huber wastewater heat exchangers and 5 chiller/heat pumps.
It also includes the excavation of a 38-meters-deep wet well that will connect to the sewer main; and the retrofit of the hospital’s existing heating steam system to a low-temperature, hot water system.
On the other hand, about the alliance, Teri McKibbon, President and CEO of Bird, said. “I am particularly proud of Bird’s participation in this inaugural project, and recognize the substantial opportunity created through the Alliance Agreement, as well as the positive alignment of this innovation with a lower carbon future.”
Finally, he remarked. “Wastewater is a relatively untapped renewable energy source that is underutilized in North America, and working closely with our partner, we are excited to bring this valuable, sustainable solution to institutions across Canada.”
