Speaker: Michael Wiggin
Topic: Sector Coupling of Electricity and Thermal Systems: Our biggest opportunity for GHG reduction.
Time: Nov 12, 2025, 13:30 Eastern Standard Time (US and Canada)
Summary:
The talk will explore how thermal energy networks or modern district heating systems can provide a link between low-grade heat demands for building heating with sources of i) rejected heat from industry, data centres and thermal electric plants (including nuclear) and ii) harvest sources of renewable or decarbonized energy not accessible by individual buildings. Major developments or possibilities will be featured such as seasonal thermal energy storage and nuclear CHP. I will focus on nuclear CHP, not because I am advocating nuclear, but because we are moving ahead with nuclear generation with no provision for useful heat recovery. Pickering Nuclear Generating Station alone could heat most of Toronto.
Biography:
Michael Wiggin is a retired, but active, engineer who managed an energy systems research team at NRCan for many years and was an advisor to PWPSC in the modernization of their district heating system in Ottawa. He is still Senior Advisor to the IEA District Heating and Cooling Technology Collaboration Party, Deputy Chair of the OSPE (Ontario Society of Professional Engineers) Energy Task Force, and a Director of the Boltzmann Institute (bi-ib.ca). The Boltzmann Institute has recently released a major “2 Pathways” report comparing the electrification of building heating with the use of thermal networks Boltzmann Institute website. He is frequently consulted on the emerging opportunities for sector coupling.
Administration:
– The CACOR Sponsor Peter MacKinnon
Background document – Two Pathways
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