Because land sales generate revenues, Blatchford grows without affecting the property taxes of Edmontonians.
Some other aspects of the project:
Under the Blatchford Redevelopment Office’s responsibility:
- Contractors are hired to put shovels in the ground.
- Parcels of land are independently assessed and sold to private builders.
- Private builders work within customized architectural and green building codes.
Blatchford is leading edge and ever-evolving
This is a long-term project, and so the plan for achieving Blatchford’s sustainability vision is intended to adapt and evolve over time to align with emerging technologies, current best practices, data, learnings, City priorities and fiscal responsibility. Here are some examples of the plan’s evolution.
Energy from geoexchange vs biomass:
- A 2013 study analyzed energy implications, greenhouse gas emissions and costs of six energy delivery options.
- Two leading options were identified: (1) a District Energy Sharing System (DESS) with geoexchange, and (2) a traditional district system with a combined heat and power plant.
- Option 1 (DESS with geoexchange) was implemented in Blatchford because:
- A DESS with geoexchange is more efficient and has the potential to reach the project’s energy goal of being both carbon neutral and 100 per cent powered by renewable energy.
- A biomass plant burns biological materials (usually wood) to create energy. This would therefore not be carbon neutral and not 100 per cent renewable energy.
- A biomass plant would also have resulted in a combustion plant and associated storage and material handling facilities being located inside the neighbourhood.
- Biological materials for burning are not readily available within Edmonton. Therefore, this would have involved continuously trucking in thousands of tons of biological material on a daily basis to Edmonton from other regions to operate the system.
Recreational lake:
- A Nov. 26, 2015 report to City Council detailed the cost and benefits of building a recreational lake in Blatchford. Given the conflicts between the Blatchford vision and a public amenity recreation lake (as well as the costs and timing concerns), Administration did not recommend adding a recreation lake to the community.
- The current park design and ponds will have approximately double the green space compared to what’s seen in a typical Edmonton community.
Pneumatic waste collection:
- A pneumatic waste system would have seen residents and businesses putting a portion of their waste into a vacuum tube to be ‘transported’ to a central location in Blatchford.
- The estimated cost of the pneumatic waste system for the entire site was $91 million dollars (cost estimated as part of the 2014 business plan presented to City Council)
- This approach doesn’t emphasize garbage reduction. Garbage would also still need to be trucked to the Waste Management Centre from this central location.
- For these reasons, the project determined that from a cost, effort and environmental impact perspective it would be better to connect to Edmonton’s waste management system and focus on reducing the amount of waste going to the landfill.
‘Peaking’ energy centres:
- Peaking energy sources are required to ensure the system can provide reliable energy to the community’s residents and businesses during shorter periods of time when extra energy is needed in the system – e.g. during extreme cold periods in the winter or heat waves in the summer. Aside from these short and rare periods, the utility’s energy will come fully from renewable sources, such as geo-exchange and sewer waste heat recovery energy centres.
- The City looked at the opportunity of providing base and peak loads from renewables alone and not relying on peaking energy centres utilizing natural gas. This approach would have led to an increase in capital costs of over $100 million, which the utility and its customer base would have to absorb.
- It is important to note that the decision to use natural gas for peaking energy centres will result only in a minor dent in the achieved greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy goals. In an ever-changing world where renewable energy sources and fuels are becoming more abundant and economical, the City is constantly looking to offset any fossil fuel with renewable ones, while keeping the social, environmental and economical balance of the project in mind.
The City is uniquely positioned to bring Blatchford’s sustainability vision to life
The Blatchford Redevelopment Office is uniquely positioned as the community’s land developer to keep City Council’s long-term vision in mind – like taking the time to problem-solve for sustainability both in ways that have never been done before and are well worth it for the future of people and planet. Learn more.