Calgary is about to enter a new era in the production of electricity.
Enmax says it's ready to build Calgary's first district energy centre.
Officials say the centre will change the way we heat our homes and office buildings. "The old way of making electricity is roughly 30 percent efficient. The way we will be making electricity and using the waste heat in a district energy plant...will push that to 60, 70, 80 percent efficiency," says Gary Holden, the CEO of Enmax.
The Enmax District Energy Project will be located in the heart of the city and the gas-fired centre will feed hot water into buildings. "District energy makes hot water. It gets piped under the streets into buildings and is used to heat the building. You take out your boiler plant and all the equipment related to a boiler plant and put it in a central location," explains Kees Cusveller from Graham Construction.
The cost of the new energy centre will be split three ways. The province and the federal government will each contribute $10-million and the city will contribute $11.8-million.
Alderman Bob Hawkesworth says City Hall will be one of the first district energy customers, but he suspects it won't take long for other businesses to become customers. "As people understand this system...I think they will find it more and more attractive as a way of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and reducing their energy bills," says Hawkesworth.
The energy centre is expected to be operational by the fall of 2009.
