Environmental and health benefits of district cooling using utility-based cogeneration in Ontario, Canada

Environmental and health benefits are shown to be possible in the province of Ontario by using heat cogenerated from the facilities of the main provincial electrical utility, Ontario Hydro, to drive absorption chillers which supply the cooling needs of district-cooling networks in the province. Two district-cooling scenarios are assessed. The first assumes implementation of utility-based cogeneration/absorption chilling to satisfy a minor portion of the cooling demands of the residential-commercial-institutional sector. The other scenario is similar, but assumes a larger portion of the sector cooling demands are satisfied using utility-based cogeneration/absorption chilling. Presented in the assessments are (i) data on fuel-cycle emissions, environmental and health effects, and associated economic costs of the existing Ontario Hydro energy system and (ii) the reductions in emissions, effects and environmental and health costs predicted for each scenario. Effects considered include mortality, morbidity, lost work days, lost crop yield, lost fish yield, building damage, global warming and aquatic thermal effects.