lowest. IE if the fuel is waste wood from a wood processing plant then the operating cost may be much lower than a system based on fuel such as natural gas heating oil. This also depends on other factors such as the capital costs, financing cost and operating and maintenance cost. “ Employee 2: and district heating can be economically feasible, “Cogeneration given the right energy cost environment, and in areas of high energy demand density. District cooling in my experience has been less economically attractive. “ Employee 3: seems to me that DHS can show cost benefit if there is a “It substantial new demand (new building) contemplated. We studied the potential for the Town of Truro, NS where a new hospital was to be built within reasonable distance to a potential DHS plant. In the case of , the economics are questionable because a lot of government funding was used. This was justified in terms of using as a demonstration of what could be achieved by DHS. Anecdotal information indicates that the provision of DHS to small-size commercial/residential clients is clearly a loss-situation. Discussion of pay-back period is not really relevant. It is generally accepted that is a very crude measure of success. DHS is a “pay-back period” community facility that embeds many non-financial benefits that a municipality would want. For example, the energy can be provided from natural resources (biomass, geothermal, etc.) on a scale that individual clients would not be able to install. Therefore, they could not achieve the lower cost per unit of energy output. Also, a centralized DHS plant could include for power generation (, Bay Area Health Commission) using natural gas.” What kind of energy savings were projects you worked on able to generate? Employee 2: energy savings have been relatively minor, due to “Total efficiency gains. The primary environmental driver has been fuel switching to a cleaner fuel. “
lowest. IE if the fuel is waste wood from a wood processing plant then the operating cost may be much lower than a system based on fuel such as natural gas heating oil. This also depends on other factors such as the capital costs, financing cost and operating and maintenance cost. “ Employee 2: “Cogeneration and district heating can be economically feasible, given the right energy cost environment, and in areas of high energy demand density. District cooling in my experience has been less economically attractive. “ Employee 3: “It seems to me that DHS can show cost benefit if there is a substantial new demand (new building) contemplated. We studied the potential for the Town of Truro, NS where a new hospital was to be built within reasonable distance to a potential DHS plant. In the case of , the economics are questionable because a lot of government funding was used. This was justified in terms of using as a demonstration of what could be achieved by DHS. Anecdotal information indicates that the provision of DHS to small-size commercial/residential clients is clearly a loss-situation. Discussion of pay-back period is not really relevant. It is generally accepted that “pay-back period” is a very crude measure of success. DHS is a community facility that embeds many non-financial benefits that a municipality would want. For example, the energy can be provided from natural resources (biomass, geothermal, etc.) on a scale that individual clients would not be able to install. Therefore, they could not achieve the lower cost per unit of energy output. Also, a centralized DHS plant could include for power generation (, Bay Area Health Commission) using natural gas.” What kind of energy savings were projects you worked on able to generate? Employee 2: “Total energy savings have been relatively minor, due to efficiency gains. The primary environmental driver has been fuel switching to a cleaner fuel. “
SustainableLandscapeBPM.docx