Huu Ay Aht constructing new administration and community facility

The Huu Ay Aht administration building is under construction in the First Nation community in Bamfield, B.C.. Charlie Clappis is project coordinator for Huu Ay Aht, "They poured the footings on the site Jan. 16, 2010," says Clappis. "It's 1,352 sq. m. (14,500 sq.ft.) on two floors. The building is heated by geothermal. It's going to have nice warm floors."
     

The facility is the difference between night and day for the community. Island West Coast Developments is the general contractor, Cobalt Engineering is the designer, and Ground Source Drilling is drilling the geothermal array. Clappis says, "Geothermal is definitely the way to go. We had a $4 million contribution ffrom INAC to the energy side."
     

Clappis says, "It's going to have a great location on a high point," affording a view of the Pacific Ocean, "and enough altitude to survive a tsunami," he jokes. The Huu Ay Aht Long House is on the site. It holds community events for 150 residents. The new admin-building also overlooks picturesque Pachena Bay Campground, the busy seasonal facility owned by Huu Ay Aht.
     

Clappis says the facility will hold a number of important community offices, administration, health and dental facilities, and offices for fisheries, forestry, aggregate mining, economic development, youth, Elders, education, and housing. "We started digging in November. The construction involves employment for Huu Ay Aht and skills development will be delivered."
     

Reid Longstaffe is the Island West Coast Development project manager on the project, "It's a beautiful location set up on a hill looking over the ocean. Construction began in November, and it's a bit of slow going with the winter weather conditions," says Longstaffe. "We poured concrete on the weekend. It was sunny, and the sun is still hanging in through the early part of the week."
     

The building contains two floors and a basement for the utility services. "It's a geothermal project with a lot of energy efficiencies," says Longstaffe. "We are doing some nice wood beams and using Douglas Fir doors, with full-length glazing on the back-side (facing the ocean)."  Longstaffe says the building should be done by the end of 2010.
     

INAC and Health Canada put money into project. The design phase goes back a couple of years, done by David Nairne and Associates. IWCD recently finished their own building in Nanaimo with geothermal installed in a horizontal loop.
     

Goran Ostojic is the engineer from Cobalt Engineering that is designing the building and geothermal array. "It's a sustainable project that came in reasonably priced with a few nice features in Douglas Fir, beams, and glazing. It is designed to have specialized health and dental services delivered in the building. It started in November and has proceeded below the initial budget projections."
     

Ostojic says he started to work on Huu Ay Aht's building design about 18 months ago. "It has design features like windows to use solar heat in winter and deflect heat in the summer. The whole build is designed for sustainable use." Cobalt has done the design work on a number of First Nation projects, "We encounter specific requirements from each First Nation tribe from different historical and cultural aspects."
    

 Cobalt will be working start to finish on the Huu Ay Aht facility that should be open in the spring of 2011 at the latest.

New power makes Douglas First Nation feel connected

The Lower St'at'mx First Nations have a world of opportunity at hand as they become part of  energy developments that make new opportunities available. Douglas First Nation partnered with Cloudworks Energy to help bring hydro-electric power into Douglas First Nation for the first time in history. This benefits Douglas and other In-SHUCK-ch member-communities of the St'at'mx Nation.
     

There are less than a dozen villages left in the St'at'mx Nation, and four of those are known as In-SHUCK-ch, but the people of these villages and town-sites have occupied the deep valleys from Mt. Currie to Harrison Lake since time immemorial. A woman named Cinnamon from Mount Currie talked one afternoon on a mountain-top while looking down at one of the lakes, Seton Lake, east of Anderson Lake. She said her grandmother recalled the view from that mountain-top at night, that it sparkled like thousands of stars congregated around a dark void. Cities of people once surrounded these lakes, and the sparkling 'stars' were summer campfires. The pithouses were countless and the artifacts remain everywhere to be seen.
     

The St'at'mx Nation was reduced to 11 reserves, and this year hydro power will be available for the first time in history to Douglas First Nation Indian Reserves. These communities can envision the future with new optimism. Families can grow in the villages, other families can return, and business and employment opportunity will become an everyday reality.
     

Douglas First Nation is in the power business now. They generate electrical energy from five (of six) run-of-river hydro stations. The last one will be finished this year. They are partners with Cloudworks and have members with the latest construction skills working for Kiewit and Sons, general contractor on the Douglas First Nation/Cloudworks Energy series of run-of-river hydro projects. Nick Andrews is in liaison with Douglas First Nation for Cloudworks Energy, “It's a great accomplishment and great thing for the communities.” Cloudworks Energy started negotiations in 1999 toward this end. “You can see benefits already. Communities have new infrastructure and capacity for developments like new housing. They have growing communication infrastructure. They have electricity to grow with and they are starting to feel more connected,” literally and figuratively.
     

Other benefits to the power projects partnership include jobs in maintenance of the facilities. “Cloudworks is employing people in Douglas communities to help in the environmental monitoring and operations of the projects.  This means a commitment to training in areas such as mill-writing, environmental data collection, and construction.  Having people from the community working with us to bring sustainable economic development to their community is a great thing.”
     

Andrews alludes to the construction phase being a big boom in jobs that is gradually winding down, and the run-down of construction phases are passing by. The current construction program will be completed in 2010. This means Cloudworks will be moving on to new projects and they are one of the companies interested in the BC HYDRO call-for-power reportedly coming before spring. Meanwhile In-SHUCK-ch communities have built a great relationship with BC Transmission Corporation and Clare Marshal, Manager of Aboriginal Relations at BCTC is on a business development drive. One example of BCTC's Aboriginal business development initiative comes about from dialogue with the In-SHUCK-ch communities near Pemberton.
     

BC Transmission Corporation lines cross traditional territory of the In-SHUCK-ch, in fact, high-voltage BC HYDRO electrical capacity is generated in a site called Seton Portage with another reserve of the St'at'mx. BCTC entered a dialogue with In-SHUCK-ch leadership. Following dialogue Timberline Natural Resource Group joined the communities to train a team of vegetation managers for BCTC operations. The result was establishment of In-SHUCK-ch Development Corporation that works “to ensure electricity is transmitted uninterrupted while making rights-of-way and roads safer.”
     

Meanwhile Cloudworks continues to work in partnership with First Nations to bring much-needed green energy solutions to communities. “From here we work on projects in Chehalis and others with Douglas, and hopefully others up the valley in Sk't'ina and Shew'tk'wa. “Sustainable development is our guidepost. We are prudent in the use of infrastructure in remote areas. Our expertise is available for other opportunities.” One look around the province shows many places where Cloudworks can put its investments to work – one opportunity is the Highway 37 Transmission Line Proposal in Northwest B.C.. Other opportunities beckon on Vancouver Island, following the success of Hupacaseth and now Tla-o-qui-aht building run-of-river and making it their economic advantage.
     

Andrews notes, “In BC, people want their energy from clean and natural sources, and we believe that they will seize opportunities to switch from gas and diesel.  So we believe the demand for good energy projects will continue.  Working closely with First Nations is a vital part of creating projects which balance provincial goals with those of local communities.” 

Geothermal utility delivering energy community-wide in Tofino First Nation

GeoTility Geothermal Installations and TerraSource Geothermal Utility Services are the brain-child of Jim Leask of Kelowna, B.C., who envisioned natural gas and other non-renewable energy sources becoming less-affordable as time goes by. The energy options to burning fossil fuel were practically non-existent in North America when he started a mechanical company in the Okanagan Valley of B.C. in the early 1990s.
     

Rick Nelson, General Manager for GeoTility in their Kelowna office, "Jim was a visionary in setting up a geothermal utility company in B.C.. Running a geothermal utility is not that difficult in this province but different provinces have different rules." In the province of B.C., meanwhile, GeoTility has found a lot of success by working with First Nations. "They are leaders in the green energy debate in this province."
     

GeoTility has installed systems at Sun Rivers in Kamloops, a housing development that resides on land belonging to Kamloops Indian Band, installed a community geothermal system for the Hesquiaht School, Autma-Squilx-W Cultural School, Blue Berry Community Centre and recently GeoTility broke ground on a centralized geothermal utility service for a brand new housing development for the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, in Tofino, B.C., on Vancouver Island. "It's all geothermal in Tofino at the new the Esowista housing development of the Tla-o-qui-aht community."
     

Nelson says of the company he works for, "We're passionate about delivering geothermal services. What started as a mechanical company under Jim Leask and Sons has become a complete geothermal company," he says, "including all the services involved, from drilling to mechanical installations to heat distribution, billing and maintenance."
     

Nelson says, "Basically Jim saw the day 20 years ago when natural gas distribution would become more and more expensive and he began looking at the options. As a mechanical contractor Jim saw geothermal as the next step in energy services and geothermal was a perfect fit for mechanical company," so, Seven years ago GeoTility was launched to pave the way for the geothermal industry to operate at the same level as other utility services.
    

 Today GeoTility even owns the drills (manufactured by Multi-Power Products in Kelowna). GeoTility worked with Tom Ulm, Sr., of Multi-Power Products to design a drill to fit inside an underground parkade, and as a result, GeoTility is able to retro-fit buildings in the core of a city's downtown with geothermal heating systems. They are also able to get on the job-site after construction has commenced, thus avoiding the delay of  the actual tower construction. Drilling is underway directly beneath existing buildings like the Georgia Hotel in Vancouver, and the Hudson's Bay Building in downtown Victoria, "We have also modified two drills with shorter masts for GeoTility that can operate in all ground conditions and be converted back to standard length for conventional projects.
     

At Multi-Power Products they call them 'low headroom' drills, says Tom Sr., "Geotility approached us to make a drill that could work under those confined spaces, and it had to be both diesel and electric to perform in enclosed areas." The low-mast drills run on rubber tracks to save concrete, and are transported to work-sites on trailers. They are flexible in terms of the ground conditions, says Tom Sr, "They work in hard rock or overburden, with what we call mud rotary or air rotary methods."
     

The short-mast drill is a fast machine, "It has shorter drill rods that have to be added more often so it has a faster tripping (rod pulling) rate that helps make up the lost time. Multi-Power Products has been manufacturing drills for 25 years, initially for the mining exploration industry. "Geothermal was a good match because it fills in the voids when mining drops off in the economy. We don't sell as many but the drills are always working," says Tom Sr.. They sell drills across Canada and the USA. Custom-order drills are also manufactured.
     

Meanwhile GeoTility designs the utility systems that run heat through whole communities. "We drill 700,000 feet per year and fill the holes with geothermal pipe. For example since the ground was laid out for new housing on Esowista property, in Tofino, drilling is commencing to supply heat to the entire community of 160 new houses plus other facilities, including a new Long House and community facilities."
     

Jordan Parrot is one of the engineers at GeoTilitynin charge of the Esowista drilling program in Tofino starting January 2010. "Its one large geothermal field with centralized distribution of the hot water," says Parrot. "We are doing the field engineering and mechanical design on this project. We are producing hot water for the geothermal array from hundreds of ground-loop drill holes."
    

 Parrot says the Esowista field is a large one, "It's a substantial size field, hundreds of holes. The drilling program will take three or four months to complete, depending on the weather. "The company is hiring some of their required labour from the Tla-o-qui-aht community.
     

Moses Martin is housing manager for Esowista Housing, the department belonging to the Tla-o-qui-aht community based in Tofino. "Construction is underway," says Martin, "the roads are roughed in and a new bridge was built to join this project to the existing Esowista community." Sixty-eight is the number of new houses slated for immediate construction and another 100 houses will be built within the next five years.
     

He notes that funding for the new housing development ($17 million )was obtained under the Canada Economic Action Plan, and Martin says $3 million of that was earmarked for geothermal heating. "With the overall size of the project we anticipate the return of Tla-o-qui-aht families to Tofino from places like Port Alberni, Nanaimo, Victoria, and Seattle, Washington."
     

Martin adds, It's a well-rounded housing plan that includes the geothermal heating for the new Long House and an eventual school for the new community. The bridge connects this subdivision, called Ty'Tan'Us, to the existing Esowista community and the the new community will have three access points, says Martin.
    

 Tla-o-qui-aht members will be active in the building of all phases. "We are ramping up the workforce as we speak. We will have a team of labourers working throughout the project, and phase one alone will supply jobs and paycheques for at least two years. Some training and apprenticeship will ensue."
     

The skilled labour will be learning new aspects of construction, says Martin, "We are looking for better quality housing construction being put into these homes. We want these homes to last at least 50 years. We are looking hard at the quality of the houses and we're going for the LEED Gold Standard of green and sustainable housing construction."

Thermomax takes solar-heat gathering to historic highs

When people hear Solar Panels they think electricity.  After all, the photo-voltaic electrical system that gets all the rave reviews and major marketing in the news is space age technology. But with all the hype, Photo Voltaic (PV) efficiency is actually only about 18% at most.
     

But there is another Solar – Thermal Solar in the form of solar panels and solar evacuated tubes. This technology is for heating your hot water, your radiant floor, your swimming pool. This form of solar energy can be up to 80% efficient. It’s completely renewable and return on investment can be as much as 15% a year – so in 8 - 10 years (depending on location) it could have paid for itself. Imagine paying off your hot water bill in 10 years and never paying again!
     

There are two main types of solar hot water heaters – flat plates, which are popular in warmer climates, and evacuated tubes. The tubes were developed in Europe in the 1970s and the first Thermomax evacuated tube factory was established in the UK. 
     

Patrick Spearing first became associated with Thermomax in 1979. When he moved to Canada in 1989 with his young family, he brought along the evacuated tube system and has never looked back. He became the representative for Canada, and, for a while, all of the US, out of his base in Victoria. Now, besides running his company Thermomax Industries Ltd., he has an excellent educational website www.solarThermal.com, and does trainings around the country for installers, architects, engineers and the general public. 
      

“The vacuum tube solar collectors absorb radiant energy from the sun in all weather conditions. The tubes are a perfect fit for areas such as our rainy west coast and our latitude." Spearing explains. “And in bright, cold areas such as Alberta, the reflection from the snow can increase the performance even further.  The light being collected within a vacuum means that we don’t lose the heat to the air – just like a thermos bottle.” 
     

A 1994 study commissioned by BC Hydro’s Power Smart Technical Services for Atlin BC states: “The evacuated tube technology is particularly suited for high collector to ambient temperature differential applications and for the collection of energy under partial sunlight conditions”.  This means it can reach high water temperatures even when it is cold and cloudy.  
     

The study goes on to say: “Note that the evacuated tube collector is approximately 1.6 to 4 times more effective than a flat plate collector. The higher efficiency results in the evacuated system needing a frontal collector area of only 3 square meters compared to a flat plate collector area of 5.96 square meters”. So a smaller collector is needed for the same annual performance.
     

The www.solarthermal.com website has performance graphs calculated from Environment Canada data at locations around the country, and you can look up the average performance in your area under “Regional Performance” on the website.
     

The Thermomax system is easy to install (it is much lighter than a flat plate collector and the wind can pass through between the tubes) and in appearance, looks lean and elegant, like a modern-day sculpture rather than a grey box sitting on a roof.  The tubes do not reflect sunlight and they discreetly blend into the roof. Pre-assembled, packaged components also make for straightforward and timely installation. The pump station contains all the fittings and safety devices for safe operation of the system, including valves to prevent heat leaving the hot water tank. The system is controlled by a differential controller. These can range from a simple one to a sophisticated one that can connect to the internet and log the performance of the system from a distance, an excellent tool for research and development.  
     

First Nations have been on the forefront of proving the Thermomax technology.  Municipal District of Opportunity of Wabasca in north-central Alberta began construction on the Wabasca Water World and Fitness Centre in 2002. At that time the planners researched solar power to offset some of the operating expenses. They sent a representative to Europe to search for the best technology and concluded that Thermomax had both the quality and track record needed for large jobs. The facility includes a 25 m swimming pool, whirl pool, sauna, steam room, and 2200 square foot weight training area. 
     

The Centre then installed the largest vacuum tube system in Canada in August of 2004. To provide a sense of scale, usually on a house one collector could be expected to provide domestic hot water for a family. 47 collectors were installed on that recreation centre! This system heats the main pool and whirl pool, the in-floor heating (deck, change rooms, lobby, and viewing area), and domestic water. Backed up with natural gas, the facility has saved approximately $10,000.00 per year with very little maintenance. Not only has the Municipal District of Opportunity saved money, it has raised significant interest in green technology and created a well-respected landmark in the community of Wabasca. 
     

"It's a matter of education and talking about this across Canada.” Spearing continues. “There is a lot of misinformation out there. We can operate solar heat generation in far lower temperature and sunlight conditions than most people believe possible. Proper design of the system is essential. Capital investment dollars are available for making these installations possible. And it truly is an investment: imagine putting a steel roof on your house. You know that roof is going to be trouble-free for a very long time.”
     

A lot of history bears out Spearing’s claims. Maintenance is low. Efficiency remains high over time. Replacing tubes is rare. "We have eight 25 year old systems operating in Seattle, Washington as we speak. I doubt you will find another vacuum tube system that can make such a claim.”
     

Okay, so this all may seem like rocket science....and then again, it might be as simple as feeling the sun warming your face.

Geothermal utility delivering new housing energy community-wide in B.C.

Geotility is a geothermal utility service that is the brain-child of Jim Leask of Kelowna, B.C., who envisioned natural gas and other non-renewable energy sources becoming less-affordable as time goes by. The energy options to burning fossil fuel were practically non-existent in North America when he started a mechanical company in the Okanagan Valley of B.C. in the early 1990s.

Rick Nelson works for Geotility in their Kelowna office, “Jim was a visionary in setting up a geothermal utility company in B.C.,” says Rick. “Running a geothermal utility is not that difficult in this province but different provinces have different rules.” In the province of B.C., meanwhile, Geotility has  found a lot of success by working with First Nations. “They are leaders in the green energy debate in this province.”

 

Geotility runs the Sun Rivers geothermal utility in Kamloops, a housing development that resides on land belonging to Kamloops Indian Band, and recently Geotility broke ground on a centralized geothermal utility service for a  brand new  housing development for the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, in Tofino, B.C., on Vancouver Island. “It's all geothermal in Tofino at the new the Esowista housing development of the Tla-o-qui-aht community.”

 

Rick says of the company he works for, “We're passionate about delivering geothermal services. What started as a mechanical company under Jim Leask and Sons has become a complete geothermal company,” he says, including all the services involved, from drilling to mechanical installations to heat distribution, billing and maintenance.

 

Rick says, “Basically Jim Leask saw the day 20 years ago when natural gas distribution would become more and more expensive and he began looking at the options.” As a mechanical engineer Jim Leask saw geothermal as the next step in energy services and geothermal was a perfect fit for mechanical company, so, “Seven years ago Geotility was launched to pave the way for the geothermal industry to operate at the same level as other utility services.”

 

Today Geotility even owns the drills (manufactured by Multi-Power Products in Kelowna). Geotility worked with Tom Ulm, Sr., of Multi-Power Products to design a drill to fit inside an underground parkade, and as a result, Geotility is able to retro-fit buildings in the core of a city's downtown with geothermal heating systems.  Drilling is underway directly beneath existing buildings like the Georgia Hotel in Vancouver, and the Hudson's Bay Building in downtown Victoria, “We have two modified drills with short masts that can operate in all ground conditions.”

 

Geotility designs the utility systems that run heat through whole communities. “We drill 700,000 feet per year and fill the holes with geothermal pipe.” For example since the ground was laid out for new housing on Esowista property, in Tofino, drilling is commencing to supply heat to the entire community of 160 new houses plus other facilities, including a new Long House and community facilities.

 

Jordan Parrot is one of the engineers at Geotility, and Jordan is in charge of the Esowista drilling program in Tofino starting this January. “It's one large geothermal field with centralized distribution of the hot water,” says Jordan. “We are doing the field engineering and mechanical design on this project. We are producing hot water for the geothermal array from hundreds of ground-loop drill holes.”

 

Jordan says the Esowista field is a large one, “It's a substantial size field, hundreds of holes. The drilling program will take three or four months to complete, depending on  the weather.” The company is hiring some of their required labour from the Tla-o-qui-aht community.

 

Moses Martin is housing manager for Esowista Housing, the department belonging to the Tla-o-qui-aht community based in Tofino. “Construction is underway,” says Moses, “the roads are roughed in and a new bridge was built to join this project to the existing Esowista community.” Sixty-eight is the number of new houses slated for immediate construction and another 100 houses will be built within the next five years.

 

Funding for the new housing development ($17 million )was obtained under the Canada Economic Action Plan and Moses says $3 million of that was earmarked for geothermal heating. “With the overall size of the project we anticipate the return of Tla-o-qui-aht families to Tofino from places like Port Alberni, Nanaimo, Victoria, and Seattle, Washington.”

 

Moses adds, “It's a well-rounded housing plan that includes the geothermal heating for the new Long House and an eventual school for the new community.” The bridge connects this subdivision, called Ty'Tan'Us, to the existing Esowista community and the nhe new community will have three access points, says Moses.

 

Tla-o-qui-aht members will be active in the building of all phases. “We are ramping up the workforce as we speak. We will have a team of labourers working throughout the phase, and phase one alone will supply jobs and paycheques for at least two years.” Some training and apprenticeship will ensue.

 

The skilled labour will be learning new aspects of construction, says Moses, “We are looking for better quality housing construction being put into these homes. We want these homes to last at least 50 years. We are looking hard at the quality of the houses and we're going for the LEED Gold Standard of green and sustainable housing construction.”