2007-01-06_PR Comm Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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IL 1E Ir I M Volume 17, Number February 1999 Connexus Energy customers benefit from geothermal Beat Heat pumps usually keep buildings warm in winter and cool in summer. But one commercial customer of Connexus Energy needs both heating and cooling all year. Formerly known as Anoka Electric Cooperative, Connexus is a member of Great River Energy. The Ramsey, Minn. utility promotes heat pumps to its commercial customers, including the Cambridge-Isanti Ice Arena. Opened in January 1998, it is the first ice arena in the country to use geothermal energy for heating, cooling, and making ice. Unusual energy needs An ice arena has unusual energy needs. Areas housing spectators, dressing rooms, and other nonskating activities require space heating. The arena itself requires a cooler temperature to keep the ice frozen, in addition to ice -making equipment and hot water for resurfacing three times during a hockey game. A geothermal heat pump system supplies all these energy needs for the Cambridge-Isanti Ice Arena. The arena's ice -making equipment generates waste heat. The arena's fully integrated heat pump system captures this heat for use in space and water heating, instead of rejecting it into the air. A thermal buffer stores cool energy below the ice sheet, maintaining a more even temperature and more consistent ice. It also reduces the time required for resurfacing. "The system warms the flood water ice used for resurfacing," said Tim Doherty of Connexus Energy. "Each resurfacing uses 150 gallons of hot water, so that's 450 gallons of hot water for each game. All the water heating comes from the ice -making equipment."