At its July 12 meeting, Lake of Bays council agreed to replace the ice plant at the Lake of Bays Community Centre arena with geothermal technology.
The new plant is expected to be ready for use in the fall of 2023.
It’s a novel approach but one that would be much greener than the current freon R22 refrigeration plant, particularly as freon R22 became obsolete in January 2020 and is no longer available for purchase, explained Township superintendent of parks and facilities Scott MacKinnon.
“Freon R22 is not considered environmentally friendly and is not an efficient use of energy for creating and maintaining ice in arenas.”
MacKinnon said he was both nervous and excited about using geothermal technology as it’s a fairly new application when it comes to arenas.
He said staff investigated using ammonia as well as a carbon dioxide (CO2) system and opted for the geothermal application.
CO2 operates on extremely high pressures and requires mechanical expertise when servicing, noted MacKinnon. In terms of an ammonia refrigeration system, while it is more efficient than freon, it is also toxic and “requires multiple steps to recapture any heat generated by the refrigeration process. The current mechanical room would need extensive renovations to make it safe for staff and users of the facility… A small ammonia leak could be catastrophic to staff and minor incidents happen regularly in the industry.”
He said the geothermal system being proposed by Trak International Green Energy Resources Inc., following a Request for Proposal, would bring energy bills down significantly at the arena.
“The Trak proposal for a Geo-Thermal ice plant meets or exceeds all the requirements set out by the proposal for the ice plant, including the environmental and safety requirements as staff feels these are important aspects. With the Trak proposal, the expectation is to use a Geo-Thermal technology to cool the floor to make ice while capturing all the heat from this process to heat the building and produce domestic hot water. In Trak’s proposal they project that the Township will reduce its energy consumption by 30 percent,” stated MacKinnon in his report to council.
“Am I absolutely nervous of taking on new technology? I certainly am,” said MacKinnon.
Trak’s system is based on modules and while two would be required at the outset, more modules could be added in future to expand heating and cooling abilities to other buildings such as the library, which is attached to the arena. By doing so, it would reduce the need for propane as well, added MacKinnon.
He said the Township would also save on yearly inspections.“With the Trak system, there is a small charge of refrigerant required which removes the need to have a Technical Safety Standards Association (TSSA) inspection every year. No building modification will be required to accommodate their system.” A loop would be installed underground by the open field of the playground and it will act as a battery of sorts, he said. “We send heat to it in the summertime and then we’re going to take that heat away from it as we need it, but the majority of our piping is going to be the arena floor. That’s where we’re reclaiming our heat from.”
The system will cost an estimated $560,000 and an additional $30,000 to switch to glycol as the secondary refrigerant, said MacKinnon.
“The budget allocation for this project was a combined $800,000 dollars. $500,000 from the Trillium Fund and the other $300,000 from the capital budget.
“The Trillium Foundation will extend the one-year timeline to accommodate supply chain and procurement issues. Installation will occur in Summer 2023 with the preparation work being done prior to the installation. Start up of the refrigeration plant/ice making will be approximately late September as per normal practice…” stated McKinnon in his report to council.
You can find the full report here (pdf). You can also find information about the company that won the bid, here (pdf).
Related story:
Township of Lake of Bays gets $500,000 grant for Baysville arena
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
0 Comments