LacGoyer
March 08, 2017

Geothermal Loop in Goyer Lake

Since last summer, the Patriotes School Board and Ecosystem have been collaborating to reduce the school board’s energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by upgrading 26 schools. The project will decrease energy bills by 39%, generating $960,000 in annual savings. Greenhouse emissions will drop by 2,455 metric tons of CO2 per year, the equivalent of removing 1091 cars from the road.

As part of this project, Mont-Bruno Secondary School will benefit from an innovative energy efficiency measure. Due to its strategic location near Goyer Lake, it will become one of the few schools in Quebec to use an open-loop geothermal system to meet its energy needs.

Mont-Bruno Secondary School

In this type of system, a heat pump draws water and extracts the heat using a heat exchanger. The energy recovered by the heat pump is then released into the building’s hot water heating network. Conversely, the heat pump can also be used for cooling purposes by rejecting heat into the lake. This single measure will lead to $30,000 in annual savings for the school board.

Goyer Lake formed in an old abandoned quarry that was filled up by the water table over the last 30 years. It is 800 m long by 240 m wide and 50 m deep. In addition to the new geothermal loop that will supply Mont-Bruno Secondary school, Goyer Lake already has seven similar systems supplying nearby residential buildings.

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