So This Is What "Hope" Looks Like ...

E165: An object(ive) in motion stays in motion

momentum (noun)

strength or force gained by motion or by a series of events

Physics definition: Momentum = Mass * Velocity

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This is what “hope” looks like

I balanced a cup of hot coffee in one hand, a delicious almond croissant bracketed on the plate by mango, strawberry and cantaloupe in the other, and with my phone tucked under my chin I scanned the room for that elusive spare seat at a table. The room was at capacity.

“Wow! So this is what ‘hope’ looks like!” I said to myself as I slid into a seat at the edge. I was attending a workshop titled "Unlocking Ontario's Low-Carbon Future with District Energy." As recently as 2019, this sliver of Climate-related opportunity might have struggled to attract a handful of people. Yet here was a room filled with engineers, climate scientists, municipal champions, bank managers, community activators, house builders, project managers, and students. There was only one word to describe this: Momentum.

Climate Opportunities

This photo captures half of the audience attending a sold-out event on … Low-Carbon District Energy¹.

It was a room FILLED with possibilities and hope.

The stories are what stuck. True to the Hero’s Journey, none of these projects were a walk in the park to start (but many are ending with the creation of one!)

The event’s aim was to showcase the (challenge and) synergy between Technology + Municipalities + Finance around District Energy. They succeeded.

Each presenter told us about the trigger event, the long hard night of trudging through bureaucracy, and the work needed to changing law and local sentiment. At any stage it would have been so easy to give up.

But there are citizens with vision who are standing up for us and our children and our great-grandchildren when we are not in the room. They speak for the long view. I am filled with immense gratitude.

This post is shorter than it appears.
Lots of footnotes so you can discover more about the projects on your own.

Beside the size of the audience, what stood out to me:

🌎 The audience weren't attendees: They were participants and contributors. And they believe that movement forward is possible.

🌍 You need people with vision who are ready to make a long play. The concept of heating many homes from one source is not new. The Danes started modern day District Energy in response to the 1973 energy crisis, going so far as to mandate “Car Free Sundays”.² This conference was partly sponsored by the Consulate General of Denmark in Toronto. The Danes are actively sharing their technical know-how, and exporting their technology to other countries.

🌏 Finance. Science & Technology. Government & Regulation. These were each represented in the room. As were our First Nations³. This collective problem needs collaborative solutions. The partnerships were on display.

Deep Lake Water Cooling is the largest fresh water District Energy project in the world.

🌎 District Energy can be used to heat and cool. Low carbon energy sources are varied. Most common are geothermal bore holes. But in Canada we are also using Lake Ontario (Toronto’s Deep Lake Water Cooling⁴), a unique two-aquifer opportunity beneath Waterloo⁵, and waste water in Mississauga⁶.

“We are not exporting our energy dollars” — Pam Cooper, Brampton

💲”We are not exporting our energy dollars,” or words to that effect spoken by Brampton’s Pam Cooper. This cost-saving opportunity for municipalities to use their own (waste) resources as fuel blared its way across the room at me, got scribbled on my notes and highlighted in orange.

And it was not lost on me that there is a career-opportunity for the growing few who understand this technology. We need technically knowledgeable lawyers and program managers who can deftly navigate and build consensus at the early stages of this technical movement.

“We want to be an impact investor.” — Mark Schoen, CIB

🗳️ Many of these projects have survived multiple political eras changes as they stayed their course over decades. They contended with differing appetites for climate conversations. These projects have come online during times of war, recession, pandemic and more. We need people who can hold the longview. It can be done. It helps to have financial bodies like Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) that make multi-decade investments across the nation, partnering with our national banks like CIBC (and RBC) who also see the advantages.

🤝 Collaboration. This stood out — either through careful subliminal crafting and coaching by the organizers or as testament to a group of like-minded people sharing best practices. Finance panelists referenced West Coast (BC and AB) projects. Ontario projects referenced earlier works by consultants. It reminded me of the bar conversations off Wall Street after the markets had closed where everyone knew everyone else, and there was shared system knowledge.

Advances were made through iterating on what had been done before. It may seem challenging to not have a template to copy. Meantime, we start where other projects left off, using their momentum, leveraging their relationships with financial agencies and municipal law, and stepping over rather than into the mistakes they made. Slow as that is, it is progress.

Momentum.

This Initiative is Gathering Force

While we each agree change has not happened fast enough, I am lifted by the expanding sense of awareness, urgency and opportunity. We are gaining momentum. And we cannot underestimate the value and vector of that gathering force.

• I could listen to the City of Markham's vision for District Energy⁷ that dates back to 1998, and be despondent (speaker @Michael Conte with FVB). 25 years feels long while the Earth burns. Or I can learn that this project was the VANGUARD of a movement in Canada and has expanded to serve more 200 buildings including a hospital, schools, a data centre, and a condo tower 44 storeys tall.

• Consider serendipity: Fingernail-sized zebra mussels were clogging the intake water pipes from Lake Ontario that is a source of much of the fresh drinking water for the GTA. Exploring options to sink water pipes at depth into the lake gave birth to the world’s largest Deep Lake Water Cooling system which current cools over 100 downtown buildings including City Hall, the Scotiabank Arena, Toronto General Hospital, various hotels, and a brewery - saving as much energy as would power a 25,000 town for a year.

• We heard from the cities of Toronto, Etobicoke, Mississauga, Brampton, multiple cities in BC. Each (like fellow Future Energy Oakville board member Herbert Sinnock)⁸ did not shy from sharing the struggles to bring their projects to life. But I heard the COLLABORATION and partnerships forged across private and public sectors - including home developers Phillip Santana Sustainability Director at Mattamy Homes⁹.

The positive energy in the room was palpable. I never thought I would feel this excited about waste water, but Mississauga’s Farshad Salehzade, MEPP., P.Eng. was so bullish on his project and ability to execute change, his enthusiasm whisked you along!

🧭 We are in new territory. Our new technologies demand more energy. Our industry needs more energy. Our residents want clean energy. District energy explores how we satisfy those markets without exporting our energy dollars. We are building the maps that others will use. Meantime, we steer by compass.

Special thanks to the organizers, moderator and some sponsors:

Tony Iacobelli and Centre for Community Energy Transformation (CCET) and hosted by the Region of Peel. (Agenda¹⁰)

Max Lauretta, and the Consulate General of Denmark in Toronto that sponsored the event and exported their enthusiasm and knowledge on this technology.

I'd like to end with the quote Toronto’s Jack Bolland ¹¹ mentioned:

"We are the architects of our future"

Walking out of that conference on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, I was brimming with hope and possibility. And momentum.

“Why haven’t I heard about projects like this?” asked Cathy Plewes (another Tribe Tilt member who sings with me in the choir.) I suspect it is because the doers have their heads down, busy doing and achieving.

We need more story-tellers to trumpet their achievements.

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Meantime …

What can you do? If you found some hope reading this edition:

• Share this post to encourage others, and spread the word that there is monetary opportunity linked with saving our world

• Share your thoughts with me and other Tribe Tilt members. Let’s engage in conversation.

• Search out the doers. Ask your local municipality to share their “good” stories. Most towns and cities now have an overworked sustainability group who are participating in new builds, building codes, transportation and community projects. Help share their good work with your neighbours. Let’s maintain this momentum.
  

Katharine Hayhoe instigated my active participation in climate conversations with her book Saving Us and her CTA: “Talk about it.”

This essay is another in the Climate series.

Any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of the technology and nomenclature in this essay are embarrassingly mine alone. Please send corrections.

A warm welcome to the 31 new members who have joined us in Tribe Tilt over the past 30 days.

We are a wonderful group that believes we can make a difference to the people and places that are precious to us, and that we have fun, hope and agency in our lives. We believe that the best ideas can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time. Please add your voice to our conversations.

Stay healthy. From there all else becomes possible.

Until next week …

Karena

1. What is District Energy? https://energytransform.ca/district-energy/

2. From "ARKIV-VIDEO Sådan så gaderne ud på den første bilfrie søndag i Danmark" (in Danish). Danmarks Radio. 8 October 2015. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April2019. “ about 90% of energy came from oil” Source Wikipedia.

3. FNpower “First Nation Power Development is dedicated to empowering Indigenous ownership and participation in Canada's renewable energy transition toward a carbon neutral economy.” Firman Lattimer’s advocacy for “7 Generations” grabbed my attention. He described the ways they fund and partner with sustainability projects. https://fnpower.ca/about

4. Deep Lake Water Cooling system (DLWC) https://www.enwave.com/resources/what-is-the-worlds-largest-deep-lake-water-cooling-system-like/

This project saves the city 90,000 mega-watt hours of electricity use annually (equal to powering a town of 25,000). 30% of the city’s floor space will be connected to low-carbon heating and cooling by the year 2050. It already cools over 100 downtown buildings such as City Hall, the Scotiabank Arena, Toronto General Hospital, various hotels, and a brewery.

5. This blew me away! A second aquifer beneath the freshwater aquifer in the Waterloo region offers it unique opportunities. https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/waterloo-region-s-rare-aquifer-structure-an-opportunity-for-renewable-heating-and-cooling/article_333e61b4-0222-567a-96b6-123ab0567724.html

6. City of Mississauga Lakeview Village to use Waste Water as source of District Energy to cool and heat 8,000 new homes in a new complex. https://www.mississauga.com/news/council/it-is-innovative-district-energy-facility-to-draw-power-from-mississauga-wastewater/article_378640fd-93be-5069-b165-3ce2cb143eca.html?

7. City of Markham District Energy project https://www.markhamdistrictenergy.com/serving-markham-centre/ - a great starting point for discovering more. The 1998 ice storms in Quebec were a major trigger for this project. When IBM was seeking an international site for their major datacenter, the DE component attracted them to Markham.

8. The Future Energy Oakville project started when Sheridan College launched their initiative to install a closed-loop District Energy project on their Oakville Campus.

9. Mattamy Home is a local home builder. Listen to Phillip Santana’s CBC Metro Morning Interview <0:00-8:00> that speaks to the mission, the challenges and the opportunities. Mattamy’s 2024 Sustainability Report.

10. photo:

11. Toronto is colloquially abbreviated to TO locally. Other Toronto projects: TransformTO