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From Theory to Practice… the next chapter of Green Laurier (March 6, 2011)

Between November of 2010 and March of 2011, Laurier Avenue residents worked closely with staff and politicians at the City of Toronto in an attempt to realize the benefits of geothermal heating/cooling on the street.  The Toronto Environment Office provided wonderful support in navigating the complex bureaucracy of the City.  Councillor Pam McConnell and her staff similarly helped residents of Laurier Avenue to overcome the considerable obstacles to placing geothermal wells underneath a street.  The good news is that Toronto Community Council approved the Laurier Avenue project, in concept, and this has cleared the way for those who want to retrofit existing buildings by replacing traditional heating/cooling systems with geothermal technology that involves locating wells under City streets.  It was also important that Council approved the concept with no annual fee for the easements.  Green Laurier representatives argued that migrating residential properties off hydrocarbon heating systems and onto geothermal technology was in line with the City’s goals of improved energy efficiency and reduced GHG emission – and that residents wanting to do this should not be financially penalized through an annual encroachment fee.  As a result of Toronto Community Council’s approval of the Laurier Avenue project, future initiatives taken by residents will have an easier time securing approvals for their projects.  In addition, the Toronto Environment Office has closely monitored the developments of the Green Laurier project and is currently working on ways to streamline citizen-lead geothermal projects as they seek approvals through various City departments.  It is important to mention that Yanch Geothermal, the contractors engaged to complete the Laurier Avenue project, were extremely helpful in wrestling with the countless details that had to be dealt with, providing advice all along the way.

The not-so-good news for the Green Laurier project is that our efforts over the past 3 years will not result in geothermal systems being installed on Laurier Avenue, at least not as we had planned.  At the beginning of January, 2011, there were 8 of 22 households that were on the list of homeowners keen to explore the potential of this project.  At that point, however, there were still many practical obstacles to be dealt with.  These included unclear and unspecified costs from the City-side of the project — such as road repairs, how to deal with hydro lines while drilling was underway, and more.  There were also complex building code and sign-off issues related to this work, especially because of it being located under a roadway.  Some residents dropped out as the costs escalated, while others withdrew because of the uncertainties of technical issues and because of the timing crunch.  And as the numbers of participants dropped, the cost per household rose amongst those remaining .  One big concern was a growing nervousness that some of the sign-offs which the City required, both City departments and Enbridge Gas, could delay the project in ways that jeopardized  the federal and provincial ecoEnergy incentives – grants that participants were counting on.  As a result, in mid-February, shortly after Council approved the project in concept, Laurier Avenue residents decided to put the project on indefinite hold.

It should be noted that, in spite of the disappointment of stopping the project, much has been learned about how best to champion the use of geothermal technology in Toronto. Specifically, when one takes into account the City’s ambitions for greenhouse gas emission reductions (80% reduction by 2050 – over 1990 levels), and that 2/3 of Toronto’s GHG emissions come from buildings, it is critical to approach the retrofitting of existing buildings with energy-efficient and non-GHG-emitting technologies on a very large scale.  The extraordinary effort required to undertake this on a house-by-house basis suggests that the City needs to think about the heating/cooling of buildings as a utility – such as water and sewage systems.  Such an endeavour would have to be undertaken over a 40 to 50 year time span.  Discussions on this approach have commenced, and members of the Green Laurier project are keen to participate as the dialogue continues… and it will continue.

by Douglas Worts

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The Laurier Avenue Geothermal Project – Final Report is now complete (November 2010)

Click to Download.

Here you will find information about a research project on retrofitting urban heritage homes with renewable energy solutions.  Laurier Ave is a cul-de-sac in downtown Toronto, in a neighbourhood known as Cabbagetown.  There are 22 rowhouses on the street – 11 on each side of the street.  All of the houses were built in 1888.

Currently, these homes are heated with either natural gas or oil.  Some use high-efficiency systems, others are mid-efficiency.  Residents of the street wondered what it would take to be able to convert these homes to be heated and cooled with renewable energy, while retaining the heritage character of the neighbourhood.

In November of 2008, the City of Toronto, through its Live Green Toronto Program, awarded a grant to conduct a feasibility study to examine the opportunities and challenges of energy-efficient retrofits on Laurier Ave.  The study was designed to examine the potential of geothermal systems, as well as ‘air-to-air’ heat-exchange technology as the core of this project.  However, the study is also designed to examine the potential role for supplementary electricity generation and wind power, as well as the viability of replacing the current asphalt road surfacing with a permeable surface that would help to retain ground water run-off.

During the course of this project, there has been support not only from the residents of Laurier Ave, but from the Don Vale Cabbagetown Residents Association, Mayor Miller, Councillor Pam McConnell and MPP George Smitherman.

A competition was conducted to select a consultant to conduct the study – which was won by a team assembled by ResCo Engineering, and includes David Booz Engineering and Robert Mancinni Engineering.  Results of the study are now available on this website (see link above).

In this website, you can find information on a host of topics – use the menu bar at the top of this page.

by Douglas Worts