Council to ponder heat share plan for Graham

GRAHAM Avenue could become the site of a geothermal system that lets multiple buildings share green heating options.

A new proposal calls for the city to accept grants for a $400,000 feasibility study on a geothermal district energy system for Graham Avenue.

The study will explore how best to tap into the shared energy and how much it would cost, as well as who would own it, if city council accepts $200,000 each from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Efficiency Manitoba to fund the work.

Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) said the project would help the city cut greenhouse-gas emissions just as it seeks more residents and development downtown.

“As we were talking to the downtown stakeholders about (the city’s downtown vision), CentrePlan 2050, they were very interested in greening the downtown, including building on aspects of their own corporate plans,” said Rollins.

Key stakeholders along Graham Avenue, including Manitoba Hydro, Manitoba Public Insurance, the Southern Chiefs’ Organization (owner of The Bay building redevelopment), the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, True North Sports and Entertainment (operator of Canada Life Centre), and the Women’s Health Clinic, have expressed interest as “potential users/suppliers of energy” to the system, a city report states.

“There’s energy to capture and then there’s also the district (to use it),” said Rollins.

District geothermal systems distribute renewable thermal heat to several buildings, typically in densely built areas, Manitoba Environment and Climate Change states on its website.

For Graham Avenue, a city report suggests heat recovery systems and ground source energy could be explored, with battery storage for excess power.

Ground-source or geothermal heat pumps circulate fluid through a loop of pipes buried underground. The fluid can absorb heat from the earth in winter or return it to the earth in summer, which can reduce electric heating bills by up to 60 per cent, while also cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, according to Efficiency Manitoba.

Some geothermal systems capture “waste” heat from arenas and use it to warm other buildings.

Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital), the head of the city’s climate action and resilience committee, said such a system would make sense on Graham Avenue.

“You’ve got a lot of buildings there and you could do (the energy system) efficiently… (It’s) pretty dense development,” said Mayes.

He said about 44 per cent of the city’s carbon emissions come from natural gas heating, so this type of project offers a much more environmentally friendly option, which he deemed long overdue.

“Year after year, we have these ambitious climate plans and climate goals and then the hard part is actually doing something and putting some money toward it. People seem to forget that building heating is a big part of this whole climate change puzzle,” said Mayes.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said he supports studying the idea.

“Where there’s opportunity for innovation and to reduce the city’s environmental footprint… to heat buildings and recapture some of the energy, then we should be looking at (it),” said Gillingham.

During his 2022 mayoral campaign, Gillingham set a goal for Winnipeg to build “at least” one megawatt of renewable energy generation capacity by 2026. The mayor said work to combat crime, heighten public safety and improve transit, among other priorities, has delayed progress on that goal.

A green energy district on Graham would offer a step forward, he said.

“My hope is that Graham becomes even more dense, that there’s more development along Graham Avenue. I think there’s opportunities in the future to enhance the initiative… when it comes to capturing energy (wasted by) buildings,” said Gillingham.

The feasibility study will explore how a district energy system could be expanded, potentially to the University of Winnipeg, YMCA, and/or Portage Place, a city report notes.

City council’s property and development committee will consider the feasibility study on Friday.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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