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 prov ince of Ontario by using heat cogenerated from the facilities of the m ain provincial electrical utility, Ontario Hydro, to drive absorption chillers which supply the cooling needs of district-cooling networks i n the province. Two district-cooling scenarios are assessed. The first assumes implementation of utility-based cogeneration/absorption chill ing to satisfy a minor portion of the cooling demands of the residenti al-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 h ealth effects, and associated economic costs of the existing Ontario H ydro energy system and (ii) the reductions in emissions, effects and e nvironmental and health costs predicted for each scenario. Effects con sidered include mortality, morbidity, lost work days, lost crop yield, lost fish yield, building damage, global warming and aquatic thermal effects. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.