Radio-Canada: A hospital heated and cooled with sewage water

Thermal energy "lost" in the sewers could power hundreds of buildings, according to Toronto's environment director.

Toronto Western Hospital will now use the city's wastewater to meet 90 per cent of its heating and cooling needs. With a capacity of 19 MW, it is one of the largest systems of its kind in the world.

At the always crowded intersection of Bathurst and Dundas streets, temporary safety barriers have been installed, as seen everywhere around construction sites.

They hide a well 10 meters in diameter and more than 50 meters deep that connects directly to one of the city's main sewer pipes.

You can see a little bit of the heat that's coming from the bottom, and that we're going to recover to provide that thermal energy to the hospital," says the CEO of the Noventa company, Dennis Fotinos, pointing to the wisps of steam escaping from the well on this cool October day.