Manitoba will spend up to $4 million to provide district geothermal heating for Southwood Circle, a new mixed-use Winnipeg neighbourhood near the University of Manitoba, Premier Wab Kinew announced Wednesday.
The system will draw thermal energy from the earth and distribute it through a neighbourhood-scale network, offering low-carbon heating and cooling to at least 1,000 homes. The project forms part of a wider provincial effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions while expanding the use of Manitoba’s clean energy resources.
Southwood Circle will include condominiums, apartments and townhouses, alongside office and commercial space. Its design makes it a potentially useful test case for applying low-carbon heat technology to urban growth rather than retrofitting older buildings after they are already built.
A neighbourhood-scale geothermal project
District geothermal systems are not dependent on volcanic reservoirs or the large turbines associated with conventional geothermal electricity generation. Instead, they use the relatively stable temperature beneath the ground as a heat source in winter and a heat sink in summer. Building-level systems then move that thermal energy through pipes and heat pumps.
Electricity is still required to operate those pumps, so the climate benefit depends partly on how that power is generated. Manitoba’s government argues that the province’s clean and renewable energy profile gives it an advantage as households, businesses
