Communities | Highlights

Research in Progress

LEADERSHIP IN COMMUNITY SOLAR HEATING SYSTEMS:
DRAKE LANDING SOLAR COMMUNITY

The award-winning Drake Landing Solar Community (DLSC) is a master planned neighbourhood of 52 homes in the Town of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada that has successfully integrated Canadian energy efficient technologies with solar thermal energy.

DLSC is heated by a district system designed to store abundant solar energy underground during the summer months and distribute the energy to each home for space heating needs during winter months.

Completing its second year of operation in 2009, the system is on target to fulfill 90% of each home’s space heating requirements from solar thermal energy by 2012 – an unprecedented achievement anywhere in the World.

In addition to the solar space heating system, each home includes an independent solar hot water system that meets 60% of the domestic hot water needs.

For more information, visit the Drake Landing Solar Community website  External Hyperlinkor contact Doug McClenahan at dmcclena@nrcan.gc.ca.

ENERGY CASCADES AND LOW EXERGY HEAT FOR NET-ZERO COMMUNITIES

CanmetENERGY is actively researching major integrated energy systems including distributed cogeneration, heat and electricity storage, control systems and strategies for low-exergy systems for clusters/community applications, considering low-grade and waste heat availability and load diversity, with proper matching of energy supply quality to energy requirements.

The research will provide a clear path to the most sustainable community systems and equipment and clarify their ability to make clear decisions with regards to financial economy, overall energy inputs and community impact, all based on solid experimental data and modelling.

For more information, contact Skip Hayden at skip.hayden@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca

OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH IN INTEGRATED ENERGY SYSTEMS:

CanmetENERGY’s experts are:

  • Pushing real efficiency limits of fuel-fired systems in residential and commercial building applications, with the goal (and regs) that all fuel-fired systems in Residential & Commercial applications be condensing.
  • Working closely with industry (utilities, users, manufacturers), provinces, standards & reg orgs.
  • Developing efficiency standards and efficiency policy incentives.
  • Using alternate renewable fuels and energy carriers including alcohols, bio-oils, H2, MSW, and NH3.
  • Further integrating advanced systems and energy cascades.
  • Further integrating, renewables and storage, including PHEV.
  • Refining combined generation of electricity and heat, with overall efficiencies three times that of a central thermal generating station and with a 6-fold reduction in GHG’s. They will be designed to supply all the space and water heating requirements of a dwelling and most, if-not-all, of the electricity, while still capable of sending electricity back to the grid.
  • Refining technologies such as the stirling, fuel cell, modulating engines and thermophotovoltaics.

For more information, contact Skip Hayden at skip.hayden@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca

EXPLORING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS)
TO CHARACTERIZE and MAP ENERGY:

CanmetENERGY is exploring the integration of energy information into Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a means of incorporating energy consumption information into decisions on municipal land use assignments. These maps will allow planners to model future energy performance when assessing future land use scenarios, population projections and potential energy efficiency improvements.

Smart Growth on the Ground is being used to develop Prince George’s downtownredevelopment plan. CanmetENERGY’s energy characterization and mapping isserving to a) establish residential energy performance targets, and b) to expand SmartGrowth on the Ground’s scenario analysis to include energy implications. The energy maps developed by CanmetENERGY will include a visual overview of the current residential building stock in the city along with its respective simulated energy use. Work is ongoing with the City of Prince George to make the energy maps available in a format useful for integration into their Official Community Plan review process.

A preliminary Foundation Research Bulletin can be accessed on the Smart Growth Website at: http://www.sgog.bc.ca/uplo/PG_6_%20Residential_Energy_Characterization.pdf External Hyperlink

For more information on the Prince George Project, contact Jessica Webster at jessica.webster@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca.