London high school achieves carbon neutrality
A high school in London has become the first in the country to achieve a self-sufficient, carbon-neutral status.
Commercial operations at a smart-grid project built on the grounds of the John Paul II Catholic Secondary School (JPII) official started on November 3.
The $9.7-million project, which was built by cleantech integrators Ameresco, sees the installation of 2,700 covered carport solar panels (providing 825 kilowatts (kW) DC of power), piping for a geothermal heating and cooling system, a 2.2-megawatt hour (MWh) electrical energy storage system, and four electric vehicle charging stations.
The London District Catholic School Board (LDCSB), which operates the school, says the improvements will greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, previously required to heat, cool and provide electricity to the school, to near zero and remove approximately 277 tons of carbon on a yearly basis. Not only has the school become completely energy self-sufficient, but baseline electricity costs have been reduced by 68 percent.
The energy microgrid includes a Tesla energy storage system and an integrated building control system that utilizes machine learning and artificial intelligence to reduce energy use to an absolute minimum while maintaining occupancy safety and comfort. The microgrid could allow the school’s energy systems to provide energy and other energy ancillary services to both the London Hydro and provincial electricity system while providing the school with resilient energy availability during both short- and long-term electrical outages.
“This project embodies how the electricity system is evolving, allowing a school to use a suite of emerging technologies to save energy costs and reduce emissions,” says Katherine Sparkes, Director of Innovation, Research and Development at Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO). “What’s really innovative about this project is that it will allow us as grid operator to test how John Paul II Catholic Secondary School can contribute to the reliability and affordability of the provincial grid.”
Ameresco has worked with the LDCSB on a variety of projects worth more than $50 million across LDSCB facilities during the last 10 years. The company helped the school board secure an investment of $4.5 million from Natural Resources Canada’s Energy Innovation Program to help offset some of the project cost.
The school also received funding from the IESO’s Grid Innovation Fund to demonstrate how the system could also provide both the local and bulk transmission grid with emission free energy and ancillary support services to the electricity grid.
“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with the London District Catholic School Board by collaborating on such a monumental project,” said Bob McCullough, President, Ameresco Canada. “Our work with JP II is a wonderful illustration of how a complex project seemingly far beyond a facility’s budget can be completed through flexible funding and adaptation. This sets the stage for how other educational institutions can implement infrastructures to achieve carbon neutral goals in the future.”
Construction work on the project was completed in May. Ameresco owns and operates the project, and provides service back to the school through a 25-year energy-as-a-service arrangement.
Featured image: The 25-year energy-as-a-service project with cleantech integrator, Ameresco, makes JP II the first retrofitted carbon neutral school in Canada. (Business Wire)