Ed Lohrenz has been involved with geothermal technology since its beginnings in the 1980s, designing environmentally-sustainable heating and cooling systems for sites across Canada and around the world. Having worked on everything from a small-town hockey arena to a 17-storey Manhattan office building in locales ranging from the Siberian tundra to the Australian outback, Lohrenz knows there are no one size-fits-all options with geothermal.
That's why GEOptimize, the Winnipeg-based geotechnical consulting firm Lohrenz founded in 2013, models, designs and optimizes site-specific geothermal systems that take into account geological and climatic conditions in Manitoba, that means layers of clay and limestone and a punishing 70-degree temperature range as well as building function and client needs.
The company's four-person team recently consulted on the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, providing geothermal design assistance to the engineering firms working on the multi-structure campus. "Certainly, it's a high-profile project and it's always interesting to be involved with those," Lohrenz says. While it was a huge undertaking, Lohrenz was particularly struck by some of the little details, such as transferring excess heat from buildings to melt snow on sidewalks an idea that would seem to have cold-weather applications here at home.
When it comes to using geothermal technology in Manitoba, though, the possibilities go way beyond toasty sidewalks. According to Lohrenz, bringing more geothermal options into the province's energy mix offers important environmental and economic benefits. Manitoba Hydro, the province's primary provider of power, could be nearing its peak-usage supply limits as early as 2029.
