Drake Landing takes centre stage

By Blair Braitenbach
Staff Reporter

With last Thursday’s official opening of the Drake Landing Solar Community, industry experts believe the project is only the beginning of what could be a rising trend in the utilization of environmental technology in North America.
“This is a very good starting point, but we need to keep it moving, we need to build momentum,” said Simon Knight, president and CEO of Climate Change Central (a partner in the solar project) based out of Calgary. “We need to do it on a larger scale to drive the costs down. We have to continue to make a business case for these types of developments so that the builders who are in this business can make a profit at it and continue to make more of them.”
At the opening, Gary Lunn, federal Minister of Natural Resources, pointed out the feds contributed $2 million towards the housing project. Subsidizing the costs of the homes to the tune of 30 per cent, those interested in purchasing the state-of-the-art buildings were able to do so at market value. By supporting the project and others like it, Lunn claimed the government is indeed helping the industry grow.
“We have to think of it not as a subsidy to the houses, but as an investment in the technology. Whenever you’re developing new technologies, it requires assistance from all levels of government, as well as industry and the private sector,” Lunn said.
Drake Landing, a solar-heated community consisting of 52 residences in Okotoks, is the first of its kind in North America. Because the project utilizes 90 per cent solar energy to heat the homes (with 10 per cent natural gas if necessary), a total reduction of 260 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year is estimated.
With this kind of technology at the fingertips of industry, government and individuals, Knight said Drake Landing demonstrates the potential of green development.
“It has huge applications for subdivisions around the country, across North America,” Knight said.
“It has this massive potential for not only changing the residential (market), but this same technology in energy storage can be used for waste energy from an industrial source…The technology has a lot of different applications and so it’s exciting because we’re always looking for new applications that can make a tremendous difference with the way we do business.”
Lunn could not comment as to whether the government will contribute specifically to another project like Drake Landing because he said private companies come to the government with proposals, and they then choose which ones to fund. In this regard he said the federal government is doing all they can.
“We’ve got a number of initiatives under way,” Lunn said. “We’ve just added hundreds of millions of dollars to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities who fund projects like this. We’ve got an energy efficiency program for homeowners. But each of these projects will evolve and they’re great investments by the government. We’re doing this on the entire spectrum of energy, right from the production through to the consumption.”
From a local perspective, Okotoks Mayor Bill McAlpine said Drake Landing not only provides an example of the possibilities of environmentally friendly technologies, but is also a major draw for the town of Okotoks. With Okotoks gaining a world-renowned reputation for its environmental sustainability efforts, McAlpine said he took the opportunity to address more initiatives he’d like to see brought to the town with Lunn and MP Ted Menzies, who was also at the opening.
“I’d like to see a research centre, not necessarily just solar energy, but for wind (and) alternative energy solutions. We need a research centre and I would like to see that here,” McAlpine said.
Menzies said there is always competition for support funding throughout the country for various projects. However, he said the residents’ desire for such a project and the “forward thinking” of council members netted the dollars for Drake Landing.
“There’s a lot of credit that should go to the builder – Sterling Homes – to the mayor and council… and all the people involved in the process all the way through,” Menzies said.
“It’s a young population in this community, and it’s good to see a mayor and council looking forward to filling those needs. A young community needs different facilities; that’s always a challenge.”
After the various partners in the Drake Landing project concluded their speeches, people were given a tour of the solar storage facility. Bill Wong, project manager and developer of Drake Landing, said the project is almost totally complete. He said there is just some fine tuning of the control systems left, but other than that all the solar collectors are commissioned and running and the energy centre is working efficiently.