NDP promises to pump in $130M for geothermal heat installations

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This article was published 20/09/2023 (743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The New Democrats pledged $130 million for geothermal heat pump installations in Manitoba homes, promising lower energy bills for homeowners.

The party has earmarked $26,000 per home — for 5,000 houses — for geothermal energy conversion.

Chosen homes will not pay for their installations, said Adrien Sala, NDP candidate for St. James.

“All they can expect is a significant reduction (up to 50 per cent) in their heating costs,” Sala stated.

He made the announcement Wednesday, standing near a Norwood home that uses geothermal energy.

Geothermal systems, or ground source heat pumps, move existing heat into and out of the ground via pipes, warming or cooling a building. They can reduce a home’s annual heating energy use by 50 to 70 per cent, Manitoba Hydro’s website states.

The NDP’s plan will create around 1,000 jobs and cut greenhouse gas emissions, Sala said.

“At the end of the day, this is going to create a huge payback for the province,” he added.

The saved hydroelectricity can be sold elsewhere, like to the United States, or “reinvested” in Manitoba’s clean energy transition.

Sala didn’t specify how the New Democrats will choose 5,000 houses. The party will pick “the lowest hanging fruit where the biggest efficiency opportunities are.”

“The ideal home right now is slightly more inefficient,” Sala said. “It’s probably in an older neighbourhood, and it already has an HVAC system that allows for that air to be moved around.”

Rural homes using electric resistance heating “provide a significant opportunity,” he added.

Efficiency Manitoba would manage the 5,000 installations, Sala said.

The New Democrats plan to spend $32.5 million annually over four years on the initiative. However, they believe the program will ultimately pay for itself.

“You’re using latent energy that’s sitting there and selling that to the homeowner,” Sala said.

NDP leader Wab Kinew has previously indicated the party’s spending will be covered by the $520 million reserved for “contingencies and unanticipated events” in the Progressive Conservatives’ latest budget.

The NDP have budgeted $5 million for training related to geothermal energy, Sala said.

“We do not have the workers we need to deliver on this,” he asserted. “We’ve got a government that hasn’t made any progress… in growing our geothermal sector in Manitoba.”

He didn’t give a number on how many geothermal heat pump installation workers are needed but said there will be around 1,000 jobs made by the initiative.

Aki Energy is on the list to receive funding for more trainees, Sala said.

The Indigenous-led social enterprise began in 2013. Since then, it’s installed more than 600 units in First Nations communities, training community members to install the pumps.

A typical installation costs roughly $30,000, said Darcy Wood, the CEO of Aki Energy. The installation process lasts two days, added Honey Courchene, an employee.

Ian Walker spent upwards of $20,000 on his Winnipeg home’s geothermal system in 2016.

“I kind of looked at it like… I’m making an investment in something we’re going to use for a long time,” Walker shared.

His house was the backdrop for the NDP’s announcement. He stood in his front yard, near a well; it provides ground water to the furnace.

Heat can be sucked from the water and used in the house; heat from the house can be funnelled into the ground water via the heat pump, Walker said.

“We’re very happy with (the system),” he added, saying his electricity bill has dropped by 75 per cent and his furnace is more efficient.

“Ground source heat pumps can work extremely well in Manitoba,” Kelsey Thomas, Efficiency Manitoba’s communications specialist, wrote in a statement.

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Around 8,000 Manitoba homes use the energy source; more than 1,000 of those are in Winnipeg.

Efficiency Manitoba offers rebate of up to $2.50 per square foot for homes and businesses upgrading to ground source heat pumps, Thomas wrote.

Manitoba Hydro’s 2023 Integrated Resource Plan asserts that ground source heat pumps’ performance “varies widely,” and on average, they’re not cost-effective.

Further study on ground source heat pumps is needed, the plan continued.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com

Gabrielle Piché
Reporter

Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.

Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.