Climate Change 2001 report

Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2001 21:09:43 -0200
From: Phil Thompson <philthompson@ns.sympatico.ca>
To: "'sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca'" <sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca>
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects


Climate Change 2001 - Retrospective
Report by Phil Thompson

Nova Scotia Home Builders Association, the Federal Office of Energy
Efficiency and Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources hosted a one
day conference in Halifax November 5th to bring building energy experts
together to discuss climate change impacts of energy use in Canada.

Opened by Natural Resources Minister, Hounourable Ernie Fage, himself a
farmer and businessman, participants were told about the province’s
recent energy strategy process. Minister Fage described how more than
100 submissions from Nova Scotians asked for more local benefit from oil
& gas development, new training & education, an end to subsidies, and
more diversity in energy sources, including renewables. The Minister
expressed interest in the provinces “experiment” with large wind
turbines. Questions from the audience included progress on large wind
power projects, opportunities for energy efficiency in buildings,
implications of forest clearcutting, gas guzzler taxes, and the lack of
policies for implementation of efficiency in public buildings.

Keynote speaker Dr. Donald Aitken, a building designer and senior energy
scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, brilliantly
demonstrated the use of environmental energies to reduce the impact of
building energy use on climate change. He gave many examples of
buildings which have used natural daylight to reduce energy use by as
much as 50% with no additional cost to the project. He described how
single glazed window heat loss in US homes equals the energy provided by
the Alaska pipeline, and how simple photocell controls on office lights
near windows in the Boston area can alone save 20 megawatts of power. To
Dr. Aitken, who is based in California, common sense measures like
turning to proven wind generators for power, are not esoteric, and long
past “experimental”. As a buildings specialist with great respect for
architect Frank Lloyd Wright, he showed a house designed by Wright in
1946 which used natural sunlight and the protection of the earth to
reduce energy use by more than 40%. His favorite local example of
natural energy is the Purdy’s Wharf development on our harbourfront, it
is the only large building in the world using seawater for natural
cooling and heating.



Peter Busby, a Canadian architect with decades of experience in “green”
building design, stressed a holistic approach to environmental design
and planning which takes into account every aspect of energy
conservation, ecological footprint, recycling of materials and even
zoning issues. He especially stressed internal thermal mass in large
buildings to absorb daylighting energies and internal loads to prevent
forced mechanical heating and cooling. But his main lesson was to use
the LEED tool to evaluate green building design by examining sustainable
site design issues, water efficiency, energy & atmosphere, materials and
resources, innovative design, and indoor environmental quality. He used
his major renovation of the Telus building to demonstrate once again
that savings of more than 40% are possible without any additional
capital cost. He said any engineer who wants buildings with windows that
do not open, should be re-educated or fired. According to Busby, we can
meet 50% of our Kyoto climate change commitments in Canada simply by
retrofitting buildings.

Phil Sidebottom, vice-president, power generation and senior engineer
with Emera, over lunch described the entire local grid from the point of
view of the Utility, and the history of our switch from coal to oil -
and then back to coal again. Mr. Sidebottom regretted the need to use
off shore coal for air quality reasons, and said he looked forward to
new technolgies so NS coal could be burned clean. He was struck by what
he learned from the morning speakers, because by 2020 his utility needs
a 50% reduction in building energy loads, and now it was possible. He
described the failure of the Wreck Cove wind energy project in the
seventies, and was surprised that Cheticamp rejected the corporation’s
recent selection of their community for large wind generators. He
expressed interest in community based selection of wind generators under
the current 50 MW RFP, but has a concern that the intermittent nature of
wind requires a “double-investment” of capital up front for back up
generation. He said he believes the future holds significant potential
for his personal preference of gas fired microturbines used for
cogeneration, and wished district heating from thermal plants did not
present such a difficult planning problem due to short term capital
planning problems .  During the brief question period, he thought
homeowners and businesses are quite attentive to power use, but that
public buildings need policies to make a difference.



The afternoon sessions provided useful information on municipal green
planning programs, specific consequences of atlantic climate change, and
a round table discussion with multiple players from the industry.

Sandor Derrick described the complexities and opportunities of the Green
Planning Initiative of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. He
suggested municipalities were key partners in local change and described
the $125 million fund which the federation administers to enhance air,
soil, water quality and use green energy. His projects must demonstrate
a minimum of 35% reduction in resource use through innovative design
changes which produce replicable results with measurable savings. While
many interesting initiatives were described, sadly none achieved the
successes of projects highlighted during the morning sessions, and while
some Canadian municipalities are taking the lead in greening our
communities, others do not know what buildings they own, let alone what
the energy bills might be. The outstanding success of HRM’s composting &
recycling program is an interesting exception.

Steve Szabo, Climate Change manager for Environment Canada, Atlantic
region, gave a specific summary of climate change effects on Atlantic
Canada and then moved to a very useful evaluation of locally used energy
sources and their climate change implications. His table detailed
various pollution impacts of renewables, wood, oil, gas, electric,
stored oil, and others -stressing tradeoffs and environmental costs of
energy choices. He was particularly concerned about pollution caused by
even highly efficient woodstoves in the urban environment, which he
estimated was 200 times worse than the nearest fuel competitor. One
issue brought up during question period illustrated a serious problem
for government departments trying to initiate green projects where they
work. Steve described his frustration with the leased Queen Square
office space which has housed his department for more than two decades.
He could not even control the lights on his floor, which were on full
time. There was no switch. All attempts to do energy management have
failed.


The industry round table turned out to be less of a panel discussion and
more of a linear series of brief presentations.

Dick Miller, current president of the Canadian Home Builders Association
and pioneer of the R2000 program, summarized the dramatic spin-off of
the R2000 principles throughout the Canadian housing industry. He said
we have become a world leader in energy efficient home construction
because of this program, and suspected there are 80 R2000 equivalent
homes for every one registered.

Erik Twohig, president of Renewable Energy Services Ltd and shortlisted
for the 50 MW of wind energy recently announced by NSP, described his
excitement about the community investment approach his company is taking
toward wind energy, and some frustration that, because we have no clear
federal policies, the playing field is not as level as it is in Europe
or the US, where some sort of credit is given to green energy to balance
the pollution costs of traditional fossil fuels.

Chris Bavis, a twenty year veteran of Enerplan, an energy performance
contract company which has outlived most of its competititon, spoke
briefly about the many opportunities which remain in public buildings to
reduce energy use through well tested methods, and pay for the
investments through energy savings. Enerplan recently completed a $28
million project in all NB schools, creating a 30% reduction on $18
million in energy, while NS schools have had little success in this
area.

Suzanne Bona, sales manager for Scotian Homes Ltd, learned recently that
her firm was the provincial leader in R2000 house construction over the
last ten years. She spoke about the work required to “sell” the slight
extra cost of R2000, but that her clients, once they go R2000, never
want to live in anything else. She also described the cooperation with
other partners, like NSP, in testing new technologies such as off-peak
electric heating, and the benefits to consumers who are interested in a
variety of energy options.

Tony Folkins, director of sales & service for NS Power, echoed Bona’s
enthusiasm for demonstrating new technolgies that benefit both the
consumer and the utility’s need for load levelling. He described how
these issues require a great deal of communication “one customer at a
time”.



Finally, Jim Brennan of Rideau Construction, builder of many P3 schools
in Nova Scotia, described his hectic design build learning curve which
included discovering opportunities for major reductions in energy costs
in the middle of construction. He simultaneously applied for support for
some of these initiatives, in the middle of the process, and happily met
the targets in many of his schools.


In all, an interesting, well-organized session with not nearly enough
people present to benefit from this information, and very little media
interest to communicate these important lessons beyond the specialist
audience, despite supporting sponsors such as NS Power and The Daily
News.

We in Canada have a great deal to be proud of on the residential side of
things, but much to learn about public policies which enforce change in
the area of public buildings and green energy generation. If we are to
meet our Kyoto Climate Change commitments, senior policymakers will have
to change the policies which inhibit progress in our public buildings
and electrical grids.


- Phil Thompson

 902-499-0365
 philthompson@ns.sympatico.ca





-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
The preceding message was posted on Sustainable Maritimes (sust-mar)
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

A word from our lawyers ...

Don't forget ... COPYRIGHT material, such as newspaper/magazine articles
cannot be posted on sust-mar without the owner's permission. It's against
the law. CROSS-POSTINGS (messages from other lists) are also discouraged.

In either case, why not tell us something about the issue in your own
words? Or ... send a clipping along with the URL where the original can be
found, or directions how to join the list it came from?

Takes a few more minutes, but makes for a more interesting sust-mar ... :)


next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects