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INCENTIVE PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS DICTATE LATE FALL PROJECT STARTS
April, 2007
The federal government will begin accepting applications for its ecoENERGY Retrofit for Buildings incentive program on June 15, 2007. Applicants could potentially receive up to $50,000 per building, representing $10 per gigajoule of energy savings achieved, capped at a maximum of 25% of the project costs.
A wide range of energy efficiency upgrades in commercial and institutional buildings could qualify for funding, including lighting, building envelope, controls and HVAC retrofits. However, buildings larger than 10,000 square metres or 107,639 square feet are not eligible.
Recipients cannot begin work or sign any contracts for the retrofit project until they have signed an agreement with the federal government. Information posted on the Natural Resources Canada web site states that this will not occur until November 2007 at the earliest.
Commercial, industrial and institutional building owners/managers may also be able to tap into funding through the ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat program. It promises an incentive to cover up to 25% of the cost of purchasing and installing a solar space or water heating system to a maximum of $80,000.
Landlords of low-rise multi-residential buildings no greater than three storeys are eligible for a range of incentives through the ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes program. Available incentives amount to a maximum of $5,000 per building, but owners of low-rise multi-residential buildings could receive up to $500,000 during the life of the program, which ends March 31, 2011.
For more information, see the web site at http://www.ecoaction.gc.ca/ecoenergy-ecoenergie/index-eng.cfm.
QUALITY ASSURANCE IN STEP WITH GEOTHERMAL'S GROWING MARKET
(New training and certification standards for geothermal system designers, installers and drillers are aimed at taking the industry further into the mainstream and providing quality assurance for a rapidly growing customer base. The Canadian GeoExchange( Coalition (CGC) has developed four distinct training courses for tasks related to design, installation and drilling of geothermal systems, coupled with measures to ensure that only qualified personnel can be recognized as accredited to carry out the work.
"This is really at the core of professionalizing the industry," says Ted Kantrowitz, the CGC's Director of Business Development. The initiative comes out of more than four years of industry and stakeholder consultation, including with installers and designers working in the field who identified a need for accessible, standardized training and a quality assurance program in sync with Canada's regulatory framework.
The timing is right as the CGC grew from six to more than 70 members in 2006, representing both industry growth and the association's widening reach. (Manitoba Hydro's new corporate headquarters numbers among high-profile buildings adopting geothermal heating and cooling. See Feature Building, page 12) The federal government's new ecoEnergy for Renewable Heat program also pledges to support the development and rollout of industry standards, and to promote the recognition of geothermal technologies in building codes and provincial and municipal regulations.
This federal endorsement and accompanying incentives for installing CAN/CSA-C448 compliant ground or water-source heat pumps through the ecoEnergy Retrofit - Homes program provide a significant boost to the industry, but Kantrowitz stresses that any incentive also comes with an industry responsibility to ensure that products, designs and personnel meet acceptable performance standards. Beginning in 2007, the CGC will now certify systems that have been designed and installed by accredited personnel.
In addition to completing a training course and passing an exam, practitioners seeking CGC accreditation will have to provide credit references, proof of adequate insurance and liability coverage, and reports of their work on up to five existing geo-exchange systems. They will also have to assent to the new CGC Code of Conduct, which was revised in August 2006.
Currently, geo-exchange practitioners have typically gained their expertise on the job, often moving into the field from other mechanical or construction related trades. "There are tradespeople involved, but there are no specific trades for geo," Kantrowitz notes. "Traditionally, the installers would work with a distributor/manufacturer and this distributor/manufacturer provides the training. For larger or more complex buildings, the design might be done by technologists who have developed the specialty. Often, technologists will do the work and the engineers will sign and stamp."
The new CGC training courses are short-term, ranging from two to three days. Enrollees in the residential or commercial designer course must first pass the installer course, and training represents only the first step in the three-step quality assurance process. For installers and drillers, previous HVAC/refrigeration or field drilling experience is recommended, but not a prerequisite.
Training materials have been developed in consultation with 50 geo-exchange professionals and the Canadian government to reflect Canadian climatic conditions, geology, regulations and CSA standards. The CGC recently announced a partnership with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges and conducted a training session for representatives from 14 colleges throughout Canada. Colleges could soon begin offering their own training courses, which meet the industry standard and are recognized by the CGC.
"I would anticipate we'd get some partner colleges rolling out compliant courses this September. It's a fairly straightforward piece of training," Kantrowitz says. "We're also partnering with national organizations that deliver training across the country."
More accessible training supports an already noticeable trend in the CGC's membership base. "It definitely started as a grassroots industry. It was really limited to being a custom-made, job-shop type of industry," Kantrowitz observes. "What we've been getting [among new members] is a mix of engineering firms, utilities and installers and we've been seeing a lot of momentum on the consumer level. Climate concerns, energy prices and government programs are driving people to look at this as a best energy option, whether they're green homeowners or capital decision makers looking for the best long-term value."
For more information, see the Canadian GeoExchange( Coalition web site at www.geo-exchange.ca.)
REDEVELOPMENT PLAN BRINGS DISTRICT ENERGY TO DOWNTOWN CALGARY
The City of Calgary is developing a district energy system to serve buildings in a downtown area targeted for revitalization. Piping for the heating and cooling delivery network will be installed, beginning this summer, in tandem with other infrastructure improvements slated for the Rivers neighbourhood, which encompasses about 15 blocks at the junction of the Bow and Elbow Rivers. Construction will also begin on the heating and cooling plant with completion projected for the end of 2008.
Funding for this first phase of the project comes from the Canada-Alberta Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund (CAMRIF). The federal and Alberta governments have each committed $10 million, while the City of Calgary will contribute $11.8 million. A combined heat and power (CHP) energy plant to generate electricity is planned for a subsequent phase of the project and expected to be operational by 2010.
Project proponents -- the City in partnership with its wholly owned subsidiary, ENMAX Energy -- are promoting the environmental benefits and potential capital and operating savings for developers and building owners who opt to hook into the natural gas-fired heating/cooling loop in lieu of in-house boilers and chillers. Several municipal buildings in the vicinity will also be switching over to the district energy system.
"Very early on, all of the City owned buildings that can be tied into it, will be tied into it. We have a number of City owned buildings in the east end of downtown that are getting to the age where the boilers are going to need replacement sometime soon," reports Chris Wade, Director of Infrastructure Services for the City of Calgary.
The conversion of municipal buildings alone is projected to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions in the city by 20,000 tonnes. If the district energy system achieves its envisioned capacity supplying 6 million square feet of real estate, an estimated 235,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases would be diverted from the atmosphere annually.
Pricing and the time period for contracts are still to be set, but City officials are discussing options with developers now preparing to venture into an area that has long presented obstacles to development. Until quite recently, market conditions could not justify the significant cost for the required relocation of sewer/water mains and other below grade infrastructure/utilities in what is a flood plain. Although it is centrally located at the border of the Calgary Stampede grounds, the neighbourhood has a sparse permanent residential population and a concentration of temporary housing shelters and surface parking lots.
In 2005, Calgary Council adopted a new redevelopment plan for the area formerly known as East Village, which included a tax increment financing (TIF) strategy to enable the City to borrow funds to finance infrastructure upgrades then repay the loan from the subsequent increase in property values and tax assessment. At the same time, Alberta's powerhouse economy is now creating demand for new office space and housing downtown.
"The whole area has reached the stage where the timing is right," Wade says. "What we are seeing is the interest level is very, very high. Right now we are meeting with a number of potential customers."
The timing also provides the opportunity to install the piping for the system in conjunction with other necessary infrastructure work, thus saving time and money, and to design the system to best fit the new development coming into the district. "Office buildings need heat during the day and residential buildings typically don't need as much heat during the day. Through load profiling we can build a much more cost-efficient plant," Wade explains.
None of the major cities in western Canada currently has a district energy system so proponents have taken on somewhat of a public education role while consulting with the real estate and development industry to assess the feasibility of the project.
"I would say there are some developers who are not really familiar with it at all, and they had just never thought about it. Others, particularly those with developments in other cities that have district energy systems, are aware of the potential benefits," Wade observes. "Originally, when we were first looking at this system, we were looking just at district heating and the cogeneration. The feedback we got, starting last year, from the big developers was, that if they were going to tie in, they wanted both the heating and the cooling."
The City promises competitive pricing coupled with the certainty long-term contracts can offer. Building owners and managers could realize maintenance and labour cost savings, free up space that boilers and chillers would otherwise occupy, and possibly leverage connections to the district energy system as a marketing and/or tenant retention tool. "I think they are finding with their clients and the tenants in their buildings, there is a real move to and a real interest in green initiatives," Wade suggests.
ENMAX will develop and operate the thermal and co-generation plants and the thermal distribution system, and will administer customer contracts and supply.
EXPLORING A ROAD TO ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION
A new model for highway noise barriers provides a potential platform for electricity generation via solar photovoltaic cells. Researchers at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in Oshawa are now working to identify the optimal configuration of materials and components for energy output.
The next step will be to test the technology along a highway. Scientific calculations and computer simulations indicate that a 100-kilometre stretch of solar photovoltaics could produce 10 megawatts of electricity.
The Ontario government recently approved a fibreglass acoustic barrier prototype - developed by Gentile Engineering, a Toronto based firm involved in the research and development of innovative materials - as an alternative to traditional concrete noise barriers. This provides an opportunity to reduce the installation cost of the photovoltaic cells since they could be applied as a thin-film coating during the manufacture of the barriers. "The panels go directly on the same material that makes up the acoustic barriers," explains Dr. Franco Gaspari, one of the co-leaders of the research project along with his colleague from UOIT's physics department, Dr. Anatoli Chkrebtii.
Electronic monitoring equipment for traffic volume or air quality, for example, could also be placed in the barrier's empty core and powered by the photovoltaics. "You have basically three applications in one, with this integration of applications allowing for economic savings," Gaspari says.
Other economies of scale could be derived from the sheer vastness of the project site. Photovoltaic systems on a relatively small rooftop area must perform at a high degree of efficiency to produce a sufficient amount of power, and such technology typically comes at a high cost with extended payback periods that often make it difficult to justify the capital outlay. The UOIT team is experimenting with technology that yields a lower output, but also costs less. "For an application like this where you have kilometres and kilometres available at your disposal, you can choose the least costly solution," Gaspari notes.
Similarly, broken panels would represent just a few centimetres in the vast network. "These panels will be two metres from the pavement so a person would really have to get out of the car and throw a stone at it to damage it, but we would only lose the area that the stone would break," he adds.
Other aspects of the noise barrier's surface present more of a challenge because the panels will have to be placed vertically rather than tilted toward the sun. "We are researching ways to maximize the efficiency of a solar panel that has to be put in a non-ideal condition," Gaspari says. The scientists' findings could also lead to other uses for vertical solar panels such as on windows or building facades.
Funding for the research comes from the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Materials and Manufacturing, which has a mandate to support the commercialization of scientific innovation and emerging technologies, and from MDF Mechanical, a firm based in Brampton, Ontario. The benefactors are each contributing $200,000 over a two-year period.
The City of Toronto has applied for funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Green Municipal Fund for a pilot project to test the technology on a noise barrier along a city road. The Ontario government also plans a future two-kilometre pilot project somewhere in the province.
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