Under the banner Grow Smart, Grow Green, the University of Toronto’s Mississauga’s (UTM) Centre for Emerging Energy Technologies recognized a need for a comprehensive Canadian approach to commercialization of green energy products. This effort dovetailed nicely with the ongoing drive to improve campus sustainability and ameliorate the overall environmental impact of campus development. As a microcosm reflecting the impact of urban growth, UTM will act as a living laboratory for the application and evaluation of a wide range of new energy technologies.

“Under UTM’s Grow Smart, Grow Green banner for growth, the campus has integrated the full range of emerging energy technologies into real-life applications. The microturbine system illustrates this.”

Ian Orchard
Vice President and Principal
University of Toronto, Mississauga Centre


 Energy Productivity

The PureComfort® Model 240M solution is a combination of four 60-kilowatt microturbines and a double-effect absorption chiller/heater from Carrier Corporation, UTC Power’s sister company. It is the industry’s first system to integrate microturbines and a double-effect absorption chiller in a modular product. Because the microturbine exhaust is collected in a manifold and used to drive the double-effect absorption chiller, the PureComfort® solution can achieve an overall energy utilization rate of more than 80 percent, far greater than the 33 percent typical of a central powerplant.

Localized generation of electrical energy represents an immediate efficiency gain of 10 percent through foregone transmission and distribution losses. Utilization of the thermal output of the unit to heat the central utility plant and pre-chill water for the campus’ main chiller will more than double overall system efficiency to about 65 percent — compared to the average 30 percent realized with the current system. Part of the project cost was paid for by OPG. But savings on energy that would otherwise be purchased from the grid will provide a payback period for UTM’s investment of less than 2 years, before inclusion of system efficiency savings.


 Energy Responsibility

By using combined heat and power (CHP) technology to help save resources and money on its own campus, UTM is living by the dictum think globally, act locally. By focusing on the role of high efficiency CHP systems in achieving sustainable campus growth, this school is adding environmental leader to its community and education leadership roles.

	UTM is proving that sustainability makes economic sense. While reducing its carbon footprint, it’s also conserving natural resources. The UTC Power PureComfort® system will reduce this university's carbon footprint by 460 tons each year. To achieve the same positive environmental impact, 90 acres* of forest would need to be planted.
	The power generated by a megawatt of PureComfort® systems saves over 4 million gallons** of water each year that would otherwise be wasted by conventional electrical generation. That’s enough water to fill more than 6 Olympic-size swimming pools. Water conservation is especially important as humanity battles to conserve precious water resources.
	Reduction of harmful emissions like nitrogen oxides (NOx), is yet another environmental benefit of  PureComfort®  system  technology. NOx emissions will be reduced at UTM by 3 tons each year, which equates to the same environmental benefit as removing 170 cars*** from the road.