COLD LAKE - The future is green for the City of Cold Lake.
Council is laying the groundwork for a more energy efficient city with plans to conduct a feasibility study to help develop a long-term plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Azam Khan, general manager of infrastructure services, explained to council during their committee meeting on May 17, how administration is trying to take advantage of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Community Buildings Retrofit (CBR) Initiative.
"This initiative by FCM is to help municipalities and their partners reduce greenhouse gas emissions from community buildings by at least 50 per cent within 10 years and by 80 per cent, or net zero, within 20 years,” he outlined.
Through their funding program, FCM is offering "streams of grants," which include the greenhouse gas reduction pathway feasibility study route.
The grant will cover up to 60 per cent of eligible costs up to $65,000 for a single building or up to $200,000 per portfolio of buildings. Only one feasibility study of this type is eligible for funding within a single municipality.
With that in mind, council has decided to throw their name in for the feasibility grant, with plans to focus on the Cold Lake Energy Centre and North Arena.
Khan is hoping that once they have a plan in place, it will open the door to future grant opportunities through the CBR Initiative or other funding opportunities.
“We’re recommending that it will allow us to develop our future plan and provide us long-term planning to apply for those other streams of grants available.”
Coun. Bob Buckle felt the Energy Centre was a good option for geothermal.
“There has been more and more work done on that and I think about that facility out there and how it stands alone, if we could go in with geothermal, especially with a future aquatics centre and leisure centre going in there... I really think it would be a prime candidate for a major project like that, I would think,” he said.
Khan noted, “That’s what we expect from this feasibility study, is to explore those options.”
City takes first step into the future
With creating a more energy efficient Cold Lake in mind, council moved on to discuss installing an electric vehicle charging station.
“I think similarly to what we were previously talking about, I think it’s important for us to start planning as we move forward with this,” Coun. Chris Vining said.
However, Buckle wasn't totally sold on the idea.
"Those chargers are going to be hooked up to your electrical grid, and that grid is either going to be serviced by coal or natural gas," he expressed. “People can wish it away, but that’s what's going to happen. You're displacing emissions from a tailpipe to your electrical producer."
Council agreed to give it a go, and decided to install a DC charging unit at the Energy Centre.
The station, which is considered a quick charging unit, costs approximately $60,000. The $52,000 additional price tag over the other option, which is an LC charger, is mostly due to the unit's ability to provide 250 kilometres of driving range after only one hour of being plugged in.
The $8,000 option, L2, will only give drivers 30 kilometres of driving range after the same amount of time.
Despite the extra cost, councillors agreed it was worth the price.
Vining's argument was the longer a vehicle has to stay charging, the less vehicle's will be able to use it, so the shorter the charging time the better.
In addition to approving council applying for grants for the installation of the charging unit, they also directed administration to create an incentive program for the commercial sector.
