Diverso Energy is honored to have partnered with Edenshaw Developments on Alba Condos, a dazzling 32-storey project in Mississauga's transit-rich City Centre! If the company had one word to summarize the project, it would be revolutionary.

Why revolutionary, you may ask? Well, in addition to its vast selection of wellness amenities and breathtaking view of Lake Ontario, Alba Condos will contain a borefield under 8 levels of underground parking! This makes it the deepest under-parking drilling exercise ever.

The win-win that lies below

This dynamic geothermal system at Alba Condos eliminates the need for traditional gas boilers and rooftop cooling towers, resulting in reduced operating costs and a 410-ton reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Beyond the intended function of the system, clients like Edenshaw Developments receive a practical and effective way to future-proof their building against low-carbon policies, carbon tax, and double-digit inflation on maintenance costs. Diverso Energy’s utility model provides cost certainty for the life of the building, which in turn hedges the risk of potential energy and maintenance increases.

Taking the plunge on site

Excavation at Alba Condos commenced in February, following a seamless drilling process. The crew is currently progressing towards level 8, showing no signs of slowing down! Despite the inherent challenges to drilling this deeply, Edenshaw will still reap the same financial, spatial, and CSR benefits as other clients. In fact, the equivalent of 82 cars will be removed off the road, on account of this unprecedented geo-exchange design! A leap ahead of the sustainability curve, to say the least.

Eager to learn more about the project? Join Sergio Almeida, Co-Founder and Lead Engineer at Diverso Energy, as he discusses the engineering complexities, and significance of the drilling process at length in this explainer video. 

New challenge, same low carbon potential 

Upon hearing about this engineering feat, you may be wondering how borefield functionality is affected. Truth be told, it remains unchanged. Like the rest of Diverso Energy’s systems, this one acts as a large thermal battery, albeit much deeper in the ground. 

During the summer, heat from the building is stored in the ground and repurposed for heating in the winter. At this point, the building then exploits this stored energy to heat the central water loop, like a traditional boiler would. The mechanical room houses the equipment used to support this heat storage and extraction processes. These rooms are a simple and clean alternative to messy, noisy, and costly cooling towers and heating boilers.

Choosing the right geothermal partner matters

Although several companies claim to be geothermal experts, it may not be their primary focus. Hence, when choosing a geothermal partner for technically complex installations like these, your choice should boil down to one factor: technical know-how. The number of systems designed, built, and managed is a useful metric. It can take years of experience to fully understand how to design a borefield to be fully integrated with the building, and to ensure it functions perfectly for an extended period. The ideal candidate should also be able to manage multiple projects simultaneously. Having installed the most systems in North America, you could say that project management is Diverso Energy’s forte! In fact, they are the only utility company who has designed and built these systems, while also managing operational systems today. 

All in all, the Alba Condos project is a testament to the company’s 40+ years of combined experience and represents new horizons for building decarbonization. Their crew takes implausible ideas like an under-parking borefield and converts them into solutions that inspire confidence at every turn. Simply put, Diverso Energy is ‘geothermal simplified’.

The story of Diverso Energy

For 13 years, CEO Tim Weber tried to sell geothermal heating and cooling systems to Ontario condo developers with little success. After various trials and tribulations, he had an epiphany; one that laid the foundation for Diverso Energy. “What if, like the gas companies, geothermal could be offered as a utility?” Tim believed that geothermal systems, which once seemed complicated, risky, and costly to developers, should be owned and maintained by those who install them. Slowly but surely, developers started to listen.

The result? A sustainable and cost-effective utility model, now serving over 5,400,000 square feet of real estate! As Diverso Energy continues to grow, so do the tangible impacts of its geothermal systems. To date, the company has eliminated roughly 7,500 tons of CO2, corresponding to over 1,500 cars removed off the road. Moving forward, Weber and his team of trailblazers hope to continue protecting the planet and developers' budgets, one building at a time.

For more information, please visit www.diversoenergy.com