City of Powell River Council will consider a $1.5 million project toward a heat recovery system in Powell River Recreation Complex.
At the September 1 committee of the whole meeting, sustainability planner Ana Lukyanova introduced the project, which would involve applying for more than $1.1 million in funding from the federal/provincial Green Infrastructure-CleanBC Communities Fund, for a 73.33 per cent portion of the proposed project’s funding. The city’s requirement would be for $419,680, or 26.67 per cent, from an application to Powell River Community Forest, according to Lukyanova.
Lukyanova said she wanted to remind the committee why the recreation complex is so important when thinking about reducing energy use, energy costs and the city’s carbon emissions. She said looking at the most recent data for 2019, and at all municipal buildings, the recreation complex accounts for about 70 per cent of the city’s carbon footprint. She added that the utility costs in 2019 were more than $300,000.
“It’s certainly a big chunk of our annual utility costs and it’s an opportunity for us to make a difference,” said Lukyanova.
She said in the fall of 2019 city council approved funding from the climate action reserve fund to undertake a thermal energy study of the recreation complex, valued at $30,000, which was reimbursed by FortisBC as part of its incentive program. The study was completed in the spring of 2020 and it came out with three main recommendations.
The first was a heating system upgrade, the second was control optimization and the third component was the ice plant heat recovery. Combined, they would result in an 80 per cent reduction in the carbon footprint at the recreation complex, with cost savings of more than $110,000 annually, according to Lukyanova’s report.
The first two components are being dealt with from grant funding of $150,500 from Fortis, covering nearly all the costs. The heat recovery project was put on hold until external funding sources became available.
Lukyanova said the project is a perfect fit for the Green Infrastructure program.
According to a report from Lukyanova, the ice plant heat recovery project will utilize waste heat from the ice rink and ice arena and direct it to be used for pool and space heating, saving more than $50,000 in annual energy costs. Payback on the project, according to the report, is 7.6 years.
“To sum up, I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for us,” said Lukyanova. “We are in a really good position to apply for this funding because we have the study completed. The application requires that we have the feasibility study done.”
Lukyanova said the request is for council to approve the expense pending communication from the community forest board.
Councillor Cindy Elliott said the proposal looks fabulous. She said she was in favour of dollars being injected into the city, upgrading the facilities and saving money. She asked if city chief executive officer Russell Brewer could comment on if there would be pushback from the community forest board, putting the recommendation to them rather than the other way around.
Brewer said staff had already reached out to the president of the community forest board, so he was already aware.
The committee referred the matter to the September 17 council meeting.
