Building works have commenced at Hornsby Council’s new Aquatic Centre in Sydney, where Simons Green Energy will install and commission a 100kW natural gas-fired co-generation system.
With the installation of the co-generation system, the state-of-the-art centre will have a lower grid-electricity demand and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by up to 365 tonnes per year. The system itself will provide a large portion of the facility’s electricity demand and the centre will utilise the waste-heat generated by the engine to provide hot water for the facilities and for heating the swimming pools.
Specifically, the system is expected to provide 494MWh of electricity and 850MWh of thermal output each year in the form of hot water.
Hornsby Council’s Aquatic Centre project manager Raymond Huzij said the indoor pools have been designed to operate at 31 to 32 degrees water temperature.
“An extensive study of the options available was carried out at the design phase and the provision of a co-generation system was selected as the most cost effective solution for the project,” he said.
These systems have a total efficiency of 85 per cent, as compared to the 32 per cent efficiency of the NSW electricity grid. The project’s payback period is expected to be less than five years.
Designed and to be installed by Simons Green Energy, the co-generation system is to be supplied by manufacturer Ener-G and will be commissioned when the centre opens in early 2014.
