NEU Technology

The NEU makes use of sewage waste heat recovery technology, which is a renewable and locally available source of energy. Thermal energy is captured using a heat exchange process integrated with a new municipal sewage pump station. Similar to a geo-exchange application, heat pumps transfer thermal energy from the warm sewage supply to a higher temperature range useful for residential space heating and domestic hot water. Sewage heat recovery has efficiency and cost advantages when compared to typical geo-exchange systems, due to higher heat source temperatures and lack of expensive well-field installations. During the coldest days of the year, this system is augmented by high efficiency natural gas boilers. Using natural gas for backup and peaking ensures reliability and competitive costs.

The sewage heat recovery process is co-located with a sewage pump station at the False Creek Energy Centre, under the south end of the Cambie Street Bridge (see map). While the Energy Centre derives most of its energy from sewage heat recovery, natural gas boilers are used for back-up purposes, and to provide supplemental energy on the coldest days of the year. The Energy Centre building is designed as an interpretive facility to showcase the innovative use of sustainable technology, and is expected to achieve LEEDT Gold certification.

The False Creek Community Energy Centre

From the Energy Centre, a Distribution Pipe System delivers thermal energy in the form of heated water to SEFC buildings. These buried pipes are well insulated to ensure that negligible energy is lost in the distribution process.

Energy Transfer Stations located within each SEFC building produce space heat and domestic hot water to be distributed by the customer building's mechanical system. Metering is incorporated in the Energy Transfer Stations for energy measurement and billing purposes. Three of the Energy Transfer Stations also enable customer-generated solar thermal energy to be distributed to the wider neighbourhood.

From the Energy Transfer Stations, space heat and domestic hot water is delivered to occupants by the building mechanical system. The building mechanical system is owned and managed by the property owners, and can include a variety of hydronic heat distribution systems including radiant floor/ceiling systems, radiant baseboards and fan coil forced-air systems. In addition, the NEU often enables customer buildings to avoid the use of storage tanks for domestic hot water.

The NEU Energy Centre, Distribution Pipe System and Energy Transfer Stations are designed to be adaptable to a variety of "waste" renewable energy sources. This flexibility enables the system to keep pace with technology advancements, future-proofing customer buildings and ensuring long term energy security and affordability.

NEU Concept