With its expansive lawn flanked by heritage buildings like Convocation Hall and University College, Front Campus is the historic centrepiece of the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. Now, the iconic green space is poised to be at the heart of the university’s mission to reduce carbon emissions and meet ambitious climate change commitments.
A new sustainability project proposed under U of T’s Low Carbon Action Plan aims to make Front Campus the site of a geoexchange system. Boreholes would be drilled deep into the ground to allow for storage of surplus heat, generated by mechanical systems in the summer, for use in the cold winter months.
In effect, the system would use the Earth as a thermal battery for the storage of so-called reject heat, which is typically discarded into the atmosphere.
The King's College Circle Geothermal Project is predicted to yield annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions of 15,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by the year 2024, which would make it the single biggest contributor to U of T’s annual emission-reduction target of 44,567 tonnes.
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Image via Muhanad Sidek.