HEADS UPSTORY FEATURE FOR HAZARDS
No Ordinary
Neighbourhood
Drake Landing’s solar storage technology five years later By Kristen Wagner The neighbourhood looks like many other Canadian neighbourhoods. Mid-sized family homes line paved streets. Cars are parked at the curb, and flowers dot well-maintained lawns. This is Drake Landing, a new housing development in Okotoks. But in one way, this neighbourhood is different from most: these normal-looking homes receive 90 per cent of their year-round space heating from the sun.
energy centre houses storage and mechanical equipment and a computer monitoring system. There, heat is transferred to shortterm storage in large water tanks. In the summer, when the panels are collecting more energy than is immediately required, the excess energy is pumped via hot water into an insulated borehole field adjacent
What sets Drake Landing apart is its ability to not only harness solar energy and use it for heat, but to store that energy for later use. This means that the system can store Okotoks’s warm summer sun for heat during the cold winter. And since the sun is an emissions-free energy source, Drake Landing’s homeowners significantly reduce their carbon footprints. Each of Drake Landing’s 52 single-family homes has its own garage, opening into an alley. Each block of garages has a shared roof covered with south-facing solar panels. Energy is collected by the panels and sent via a heated glycol solution to short-term storage in the development’s “energy centre.” The Drake Landing looks like many other modern housing developments.
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While it doesn’t look any different than a regular field, the ground temperature 37 metres below the surface of the borehole field can reach 80 degrees Celsius. This is where the heat is stored.
to the energy centre. Heat is stored in the ground itself, 37 metres below the surface. The surrounding ground can reach temperatures of up to 80 degrees Celsius. Heated water is distributed to the homes through underground insulated pipes. Instead of a furnace, each home has an “air handler” that circulates the water through a fan coil. It converts the water to warm air, which is distributed throughout the home by forcedair ducts, just like in a conventional heating system. Homeowners can adjust the heat to their comfort. The Drake Landing Company owns and operates the space-heating infrastructure. Each home also has two solar panels attached to
the roof, which heat about 60 per cent of the home’s hot water. These are the property of the homeowner. Aside from these features, living in Drake Landing is just like living anywhere else. “We’ve had people come to visit and not even realize that there’s anything different about our house,” says homeowner Dana Pugh. For homeowners, the most noticeable difference between natural gas heating and solar heating is that the solar system provides a steady amount of heat, while natural gas can raise the room temperature more quickly. “The heat is consistent,” says Dana’s husband Robert. “It has enough capacity to keep the house at the right temperature through the coldest days of winter.”
“You could live here for a while and not even realize it’s any different,” adds homeowner Klym Bolechowsky. The project was initiated by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) in 2005. As one of four partners in the Drake Landing Company, a non-profit corporation, ATCO Gas assumed operating responsibilities once the project was built in 2006. The other three partners are Sterling Homes (the homebuilder), United Communities (the land developer), and the Town of Okotoks. So why would a natural gas company get involved in solar energy? Just as Canadian Western Natural Gas was willing to take a chance on brand new natural gas
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technology over a century ago, ATCO Gas was willing to take a chance on this innovative solar technology. Bruce Littke, Senior Manager, Operational Training, and president of the Drake Landing Company, has been involved with the project since its inception. He sees it as an investment in the future of energy provision. “ATCO Gas sees itself as an owner and operator of infrastructure that delivers energy to customers,” says Bruce. “Our primary source of energy is natural gas, but we’re involved in many aspects of energy production and delivery.” He says ATCO Gas’s involvement in the project is twofold. “We looked at this as an opportunity to get involved in groundbreaking technology and develop expertise, so that if technology such as this becomes a dominant form of energy delivery, ATCO Gas will have that expertise. “The other side is that ATCO Gas is a supporter of our communities. We’re heavily involved in our communities, and this project was important to the Town of Okotoks.” NRCan chose Okotoks as the best location for the project for two primary reasons: it is among the sunniest communities in Canada, and the town already promotes greener living through initiatives like solar heating in its civic buildings and a population cap. The project was a natural fit. When solar energy first began flowing into the system in June 2007, it was expected to be five years before the system built up enough reserve energy to provide the targeted 90 per cent required heat. But in the past year, just four years after Drake Landing became operational, the system provided 96 per cent of the community’s space heating requirements through solar energy. Bruce partially credits the mild winter for this remarkable achievement, but it remains clear that Drake Landing’s system is head and shoulders above comparable systems in the world. Several developments using similar technology exist in Europe, but those projects still rely much more heavily on other energy sources to supplement solar energy. They receive, at most, about 70 per cent of their energy needs through solar energy, according to Bruce. Drake Landing is the only project in North America that stores solar energy underground. All in all, the project has been a success, and this success has been recognized locally and around the world. Drake Landing has won several provincial, national and international awards, including a 2006 Alberta Emerald Award for environmental excellence and a 2007 Energy-TV award recognizing the best in the oil and gas industry (in the “alternative energy” category). In 2011, the community was honoured on the international stage when it won the Energy Globe World Award. Adam Chambers, Engineer, Operations, stands next to the large, water tanks that provide short term heat storage.
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And in 2010 the community set a world record, becoming the first to receive 80 per cent of its space heating through solar energy. It has since broken its own record.
1 Each block of garages has a shared roof covered in solar panels. 2 Each home has two solar panels on its roof which provide most of the home’s hot water. 3 Homeowner Klym Bolechowsky adjusts his thermostat. 4 Rather than a furnace, each home has an air handler that converts the hot water to heat, which is then distributed throughout the home.
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“We looked at this as an opportunity to get involved in groundbreaking technology and develop expertise, so that if technology such as this becomes a dominant form of energy delivery, ATCO Gas will have that expertise.” - BRUCE LITTKE Awards and records aside, the most important indicators of success for the Drake Landing project are that homeowners are happy with the system and it is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Both these markers have been achieved. “I’ve always had heat when I’ve needed it in the dark days of winter,” says Klym.
Klym, an environmental engineer who moved from Vancouver, heard about the community through the media. He visited a show home and was impressed with the system. “I’m always looking for ways I can reduce emissions,” he says. “I feel good being a part of this.”
One day, solar energy may replace natural gas as a commonly-used heating fuel. If that happens, ATCO Gas will have the know-how to continue to heat Alberta’s homes and warm its communities for another century.
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