Condo corp breaks ground in “uptown” Burlington. Real news is what’s going on underground.

BURLINGTON, ON June 11, 2011 A 16 storey condominium will break ground this week to commence construction at the Upper Middle Road and Appleby Line part of town. The building will be one of the first multi-residential high rises in Canada equipped with geothermal technology.

Geothermal is a renewable energy source that reduces the use of fossil fuels and release of harmful emissions that pollute the air. “Just by moving in, purchasers reduce their carbon footprint,” says Ironstone’s lead architect Roland Rom Colthoff of RAW.

The geothermal holes get drilled and pipes run through the holes to bring the heat in the earth up into the buildings.  Once the holes are drilled and the pipes fitted in the construction of the building can then commence.

The geothermal holes get drilled and pipes run through the holes to bring the heat in the earth up into the buildings. Once the holes are drilled and the pipes fitted in the construction of the building can then commence.

Designed to service all of Ironstone’s space heating and cooling load requirements, the geothermal system will be installed and maintained by leading clean technology developer and operator GeoXperts Energy.

Ironstone has shown significant leadership, as it has done in the past and reflected in the more than 34 awards the company has received for design excellence and innovation, in the decision to use geothermal energy.

The positive twist to this decision is that energy costs for the unit owners are locked in for at least a decade. The geothermal unit and its installation and maintenance become the responsibility of the GeoXperts people. They own the equipment that gets put into the ground before the building is actually built. Raising the capital to pay for the piping and drilling isn’t that difficult when the finance people know that the equipment isn’t going to go anywhere and the people in the building on top of the equipment are going to want to be warmed and cooled. It was one of those win – win – win situations.

Drilling rig that bores into the ground for the pipes that will be used to carry heat into the building.  Heat exchangers convert the heat into cool air during the summer months.

Drilling rig that bores into the ground for the pipes that will be used to carry heat into the building. Heat exchangers convert the heat into cool air during the summer months.

GeoXperts Energy has brought a completely new model the condo industry where controlling costs and keeping prices in markets where competition can be stiff.

Leslie Thomas, co-founder of GeoExperts, figured he could do what the gas company does – pay for the cost of installing a gas line to a house and then sell the owner of the house whatever gas he needs. In the thermal energy situation there is no cost for the energy – all they had to do was drill holes into the ground and tap into the heat that is stored underground

“Whether it’s a 10-, 15- or 25-year energy contract, that (annual price) will be capped,” says Thomas, explaining that the benefit to the customer is no upfront capital requirement, long-term predictability of energy costs, a slightly lower annual energy bill and environmental bragging rights for purchasing emission-free heating and cooling. “That’s the difference we bring to the equation.”

Graham Chalmers, partner with Davies Smith Development points to a feature in the 16 storey condominium model that will break ground at the Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road location in Burlington

Graham Chalmers, partner with Davies Smith Development points to a feature in the 16 storey condominium model that will break ground at the Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road location in Burlington

There are other side benefits to geothermal as well, including more comfortable heating and cooling and lower noise.

Says Thomas Garcia, GeoXperts’ co-founder and chief financial officer: “There are so many retrofits that could be done. People just don’t know how to do it. If you can’t afford it, we’ll make it affordable for you.”

The idea of selling renewable energy to a customer, rather than renewable technology, isn’t entirely new. There are a number of “utility” ventures now selling solar power in the same way – they own the solar photovoltaic panels and related equipment, but sell the electricity to the customer over a long-term contract. The idea is that, over time, those energy revenues will more than pay for the initial capital cost that the utility incurs by installing the system.

The customer doesn’t do much more than simply pay the energy bill. “It’s all done seamlessly for the client,” says Thomas.

Behind the scenes, however, there’s much more going on. If GeoXperts negotiates, for example, a 15-year contract, then it knows precisely how much revenue it will earn over those years. It will take that total, minus any government incentives targeted at geothermal, and subtract the expected cost of installing and maintaining the system. The difference equals the profit that GeoXperts and its investors can count on.

But that’s just the starting point. There’s also opportunity to increase that profit by lowering installation costs, as well as constantly fine-tuning the systems that GeoXperts puts in to maximize their performance and efficiency.

The company, through its internal engineers and strategic partnerships, aims for high-quality installation at the outset to reduce costs associated with long-term maintenance. It has also developed proprietary software that lets it remotely monitor the performance of every geothermal site it has installed – including building and outdoor temperature – making maintenance easier and allowing for rapid-response when problems are detected.

An early version of the software, developed during Thomas’ days at Guelph Hydro, is being used at a 70,000-square-foot facility owned by Mississauga-based Lange Transportation and Storage Ltd., which claims one of the largest – some say “the” largest – geothermal retrofit in Canada.

“This (monitoring ability) has been a component in geothermal that’s been missing for years,” says Thomas. “It lets us know exactly how the system is behaving.”

And that is exactly what the Ironside condominiums are going to have – state of the art technology that will provide their residents with heating and cooling at a cost they can project well into the future. The developers, Davies Smith Development, have led in a number of construction innovations and may well do other projects in the Burlington market

The Wal-Mart store on Fairview and Brant also uses geothermal energy to heat and cool the building.

[retweet]

 

Return to the Front page
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Comments are closed.