A new, almost entirely self-sufficient building in Fort Smith made it through its first winter and celebrated its grand opening earlier this month.
Stand Alone Energy, run by former Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington and Jack Van Camp, led the design and construction of the Boreal Sun Building with the aim of it providing its own heat, energy and water.
photos courtesy of Dennis Bevington
SA国际影视传媒淚've always had a pretty big interest in how to deal with climate change and reducing the cost of energy for people in the North,SA国际影视传媒� says Bevington, who owns the building.
While the building has a backup wood pellet boiler in place, most of the energy used to heat and power the building comes from the sun. With a few more tweaks in the works, the system will be even more self-reliant this next winter.
The idea has been in the works for a few years. Bevington has a property with two other buildings that are old, not energy-efficient and difficult to rent out because utilities are so expensive.
SA国际影视传媒淪o, the plan was to build an office building that has almost no utility costs,SA国际影视传媒� says Bevington.
The building gets its power from solar photovoltaic arrays, which are positioned at a steep angle SA国际影视传媒� 70 degrees SA国际影视传媒� to catch more energy in the fall, winter and spring. Power is stored in a large battery bank.
SA国际影视传媒淚tSA国际影视传媒檚 very important in the winter, at this latitude, to have a very upright panel,SA国际影视传媒� he says. SA国际影视传媒淵ou also increase your (energy gained) through reflectivity from the snow.SA国际影视传媒�
The building also has solar thermal collectors, which collect heat from the sun and heat a 16,000-litre tank under the building. This tank collects rainwater, heating it with the thermal collectors as well as energy from the panels, and supplies the buildingSA国际影视传媒檚 non-potable water needs.
For heat, the building has a combination of resistance heating systems, heat pumps and the wood pellet boiler. Bevington is looking at ways to tweak the system to get more from the electrical methods in order to use the wood pellet boiler less.
SA国际影视传媒淲eSA国际影视传媒檙e doing everything we can to maximize what we can get out of the system and I donSA国际影视传媒檛 think we were there completely last year.SA国际影视传媒�
As well, only two out of four of the buildingSA国际影视传媒檚 rental spaces were occupied. In addition, one space has been in use as a temporary office space and another is a multipurpose room.
He says the worst part of last year was in late November and early December, when a cloud bank hovered over Fort Smith and disrupted his system.
Otherwise, the building often produces more energy than it needs.
SA国际影视传媒淲e need to place the energy, sometimes, outside the building,SA国际影视传媒� says Bevington. SA国际影视传媒淢y wife and I just purchased a hybrid vehicle and will be plugging that into the building.SA国际影视传媒�
Many of the systems in place in the building are systems his company has installed elsewhere over the years and heSA国际影视传媒檚 hoping at least some of the systems spread in usage across the region. Bevington says heat pumps, in particular, are a very cost-effective way to produce heat from electricity.
Costs are lowering
Bevington says costs are lowering for alternative energy technology, to the point where they will save residents money over the long-term.
This project is part of a recent wave of similar endeavours, with Northerners across the territory trying to find small-scale solutions to the territorySA国际影视传媒檚 high-cost and, in some regions, diesel-reliant utilities.
In Fort Providence, SSi Micro president and CEO Jeff Philipp has pitched the hamlet, through his SSi Energy company, an alternative municipal energy grid that uses heat recovery systems off diesel generation to heat buildings.
In Yellowknife, Ecology North and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation have partnered to try to build the Northern Centre for Sustainability, which would run off low-carbon technology and would capture emissions from the wood pellets it burns, effectively becoming carbon-negative.
