Deep lake water cooling Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Deep lake water cooling is the use of cold water piped from a lake bottom and used for cooling. This form of renewable energy holds promise for reducing electricity generation demands for summertime air conditioning. Electricity demand typically peaks during hot summer days and poses several problems:- peak demand electricity is the most expensive source of energy to provide because additional power plants must be brought online
- heavy electricity usage contributes to power outages, most notably the 2003 North America blackout
- temporarily activated power plants generally use fossil fuels which contributes to greenhouse gases
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The first deep lake water cooling system operates in Toronto and draws water from Lake Ontario. The lake-bottom water is just above freezing, at a constant 4°C year-round even at the height of summer when the surface water is warm. The system currently supplies cooling to 20% of the large office towerss in Toronto; the entrepreneurs operating the system have encoutered initial skepticism from building managers and hope to increase this 20% figure.
The system was unveiled in Toronto on August 17, 2004. To boost publicity of the system, actor and renewable energy advocate Alec Baldwin hosted this event.
This water-cooling technology has some relationship to an older technology and a futuristic technology.
Looking back to the past, water-cooling recalls icehousess which were used to store ice throughout the year prior to the invention of refrigeration. Icehouses stored frozen water during the winter whereas deep lake water cooling taps a permanent store of cold water.
Looking towards the future, water-cooling uses cold deep water just as ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) does. However, OTEC is intended to be used for generating energy by operating a heat engine on the energy difference between the ocean bottom and the ocean surface. Deep lake water cooling bypasses the need for electricity generation altogether and, so, is a simpler and more immediately practical technology than OTEC. Ambitious OTEC projects have yet to realize their full potential because they present far more demanding engineering challenges.
This is an Article on Deep lake water cooling. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Deep lake water cooling First system in Toronto
Comparison to related technologies
External sources