District energy is a system of heat transfer, and has existed for hundreds of years. After industrialization, district energy had a resurgence for heating purposes, using high-pressure and high-temperature steam through pipes to heat buildings across Europe and North America. However, these steam systems were inefficient and unsafe, leading to massive losses of energy and injuries during maintenance.

Most district energy systems that operate today are 3rd Generation systems, which use water between 70 and 100C as a heat transfer medium.

Generations of district energy are characterized by the temperature of their heat transfer medium. Thus, Cascara's utilization of R744 (CO2) at near ground temperature (10-25C) differentiates itself from 3rd (70-100C) and even 4th Generation (25-70C) systems due to it's significantly lower operating temperature.

5GDHC provides enormous benefit that traditional systems lack - can provide not only heating, but also cooling.

Additionally, through 5GDHC, Cascara can capture low-grade waste heat (<30C), which many other systems are forced to ignore due to the heat-transfer medium flowing with a higher temperature than the heat they wish to collect, making Cascara's 5GDHC a key solution in maximizing energy efficiency for infrastructure such as data centers, which consistently emit low-grade waste heat from cooling high performance computers.

Many building owners have the view that "if it's not broken, why fix it?"

Cascara challenges this thinking, as we believe that legacy systems are inefficient and costly. With Cascara's system, carbon emissions can be slashed, dependency on natural gas can be nearly eliminated and maintenance costs can be significantly improved.

Contact us for more information on how we can optimize your systems and demonstrate attractive ROI.

R744 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) refrigerant achieves a coefficient of performance (COP) up to 3X better than legacy district energy systems and is considered an excellent refrigerant for several reasons:

1. Environmental friendliness

2. Natural and non-toxic

3. High efficiency

4. Excellent thermophysical properties

5. Compact system design

6. Superior heat exchange and recovery

7. Cost-effective

8. Safe

9. Regulatory compliant

With the numerous global pledges to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, district energy systems are expected to play an increasingly important role in the energy landscape and decarbonization efforts.

District heating systems can significantly contribute to reducing carbon emissions in several ways; including, improved efficiency, heat recovery, and reduced fossil fuel consumption.

If adopted widely, district heating and cooling systems using heat pumps could potentially reduce global yearly GHG emissions at the gigaton scale.

The concept of 5GDHC networks for heating and cooling is still relatively new and unknown; despite the fact that the technology has been successfully in use for around a decade. In Europe, an estimated number of more than 100 sites with a 5GDHC network exist. Unfortunately, many of these sites rely on specific environmental conditions, such as boreholes and aquifers with a consistent supply of heat, and are thus less scalable. Cascara's R744 system, however, is far more versatile, relying simply on a customer's demand rather than the customer's environment.

As of 2019, there were 217 district heating systems across Canada. These systems supplied approximately 2.2% of Canada's heating needs. Many municipalities are now exploring or expanding district energy projects as part of their climate action plans and efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Excess heat is the world’s largest untapped source of energy. In the EU alone, excess heat amounts to 2,860 TWh/y, almost corresponding to the EU’s total energy demand for heat and hot water in residential and service sector buildings . This situation is the same in North America. Much of this excess heat could instead be captured and reused reducing natural gas consumptions and limiting urban heat island effects.

There are multiple ways to use excess heat.

The simplest way to use excess heat is to reintegrate the heat into the same processes it results from. For instance, excess heat from heavy industries such as chemicals and cement has a much higher temperature than excess heat from cooling in buildings.

District energy is a collective system that supplies an entire area with heating or cooling. The district heating network taps into heat from a combination of sources, such as renewable sources (solar, geothermal and biomass) and fossil sources, such as at power plants, and distributes it through pipelines to end users in the form of heated water.