Manitoba Housing Renewal Corporation looked at the possibility of using geothermal energy to heat the student housing planned for the new UCN campus in Thompson, but abandoned the idea as cost prohibitive, says Joe Czech of Communication Services Manitoba.
"Manitoba Housing had an assessment of geothermal energy potential conducted on site in Thompson in 2009. The test drilling concluded the site was not suitable for open loop, well to well geothermal use, but appeared to be suitable for a closed vertical loop installation," Czech says.
While the new campus - north of Thompson Drive North and between Pickerel Crescent in the Westwood area and the Thompson Regional Community Centre and R.D. Parker Collegiate - isn't due to be completed until 2013, the 24-unit housing component, made up of 18 three- bedroom units and six units with four bedrooms, is expected to be started this summer and fully constructed by next year, Dwayne Rewniak, director of land development for the Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation in Winnipeg, said earlier this year.
Geothermal heating, or geoexchange, is a heating and cooling method that pumps heat to or from the ground. It uses the Earth as a heat source in the winter and as a heat sink for cooling in summer.
"A mechanical consultant estimated a closed vertical loop installation would cost $750,000 more than conventional electric furnaces," Czech says. "The department concluded the high capital investment in combination with the lengthy payback period did not warrant proceeding with geothermal energy in Thompson.
"Since we haven't gone to tender yet for the Thompson project," Czech says, "the figure is an estimate based on the mechanical costs in The Pas new build. For Thompson, we estimate the cost of the electric furnaces and related duct work for all 24 units will be around $350,000 or roughly $14,500 per unit."
A vertical closed loop field is composed of pipes that run vertically in the ground. A hole is bored in the ground, typically 75 to 500 feet deep. Pipe pairs in the hole are joined with a U-shaped cross connector at the bottom of the hole.
The borehole is commonly filled with a bentonite grout surrounding the pipe to provide a thermal connection to the surrounding soil or rock to improve the heat transfer. Bentonite is a clay mineral, which is largely composed of montmorillonite, a mainly a hydrous aluminum silicate. It is a highly colloidal and plastic clay. Thermally enhanced grouts are available to improve this heat transfer. Grout, A thin mortar used to fill cracks and crevices, also protects ground water from contamination and prevents artesian wells from flooding the property.
Czech says "the payback period for both options was estimated at approximately 22 to 24 years," but added, "it's a little difficult to provide a payback as the electric furnace would be the base line when comparing it to a geothermal system. For example, if we say a person's annual heating costs will be reduced by $1,000 by going with a geothermal system instead of an electric heating system, and it costs $25,000 more for a geothermal system, the simple payback period would be 25 years."
When the new University College of the North campus for Thompson was originally announced by former NDP premier Gary Doer in March 2007 - with a price tag at that time of $27 million - and additional $3 million was added on top of that to incorporate elements of the province's green strategy guidelines to ensure environmentally-friendly and energy efficient design and construction. The current price tag for the project is $82 million - three times the $27 million originally projected.
The new Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM) treatment centre at 90 Princeton Dr., which opened last year, was the first newly constructed provincial government building anywhere in Manitoba to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System (LEED) standards. The voluntary, market-based rating system defines what elements make a building "green" and to quantify how green a building is in comparison to another building.
