Did you know that Canada’s residential energy technologies industry achieved a milestone last September with the opening of the first net-zero energy house in Sapporo, Japan?

The idea of a Net Zero Energy (NZE) home is that it produces at least as much energy as it consumes on an annual basis. Now Natural Resources Canada CanmetENERGY and its partners are working toward making the net-zero energy house a reality in the new home market.

What great news for energy efficiency, renewable technologies and the environment.  It’s proof that our support for research and development and innovation in this country is paying big dividends and keeping Canada at the forefront of new, green technology.
Of course leading the way is not new to us here in the Okanagan. 

Initiatives by the City of Kelowna and the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) have put us on the map as a innovators of energy efficiency and greener living.

In 2008, Kelowna was awarded Solar Community of the Year, from SolarBC, for its history of sustainable development and energy management.

As part of the City’s plan to reduce its overall energy in municipal buildings by 20 per cent in 2010, Kelowna has embarked on several solar projects in recent years, helped along the way by a $500,000 grant from the federal government. 

Solar-powered lights, parking kiosks and pedestrian signals, as well as plans for the installation retrofit of solar hot water to the Athans Aquatic Center, are all initiatives the City is taking to educate the community and businesses on the feasibility of this alternative heating source.

On May 15th, Kelowna will be hosting a Solar Hot Water Workshop at the Capri Hotel for community members, developers, builders, contractors, architects and building inspectors and will cover everything from Kelowna as a Solar Community to homeowner incentives for solar hot water installations.

More information on the workshop can be found at www.solarbc.ca/events/2009/03/15/kelowna-solar-workshop.

And that’s not all that is going on this week. 

The University of British Columbia Okanagan is hosting the 3rd Biennial International GeoExchange Conference and Trade Show being held May 13 – 15, by GeoExchange BC in partnership with the Thermal Environmental Comfort Association (TECA).

Through the collaboration of these two key organizations the conference aims to bring you the latest news, knowledge and innovation in GeoExchange from the earth energy source to the point of use supply.

In April, our federal and BC governments jointly announced an investment of $2.86 million to enable the University of British Columbia – Okanagan to heat and cool buildings on the Kelowna campus using a geothermal system, create a green sustainable building campus model and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  This will help UBCO achieve their goal of becoming virtually emissions-free and building the most sustainable university campus in North America.

The federal portion of the investment was part of the federal government’s two-year, $2-billion plan to repair and expand research and educational facilities at Canadian post-secondary institutions as part of our R&D strategy.

As a further show of the Government’s support for the leadership being shown by UBCO, GeoExchange BC and the Thermal Environmental Comfort Association, the Minister for Natural Resources, the Honourable Lisa Raitt, will address the conference on Thursday, May 14 at 6:00 pm.  

And constituents might be interested in a public open house for residential homeowners at the UBCO campus, 3333 University Way, Room SSC026 next Tuesday, May 12th from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

More information on the Conference can be found at http://www.geoexchange2009.com/

With the introduction of net-zero energy housing exports, geothermal and solar technologies, Canada is demonstrating international leadership in the application of leading-edge energy efficient products and clean, renewable technologies.

Now that Prime Minister Harper and President Obama have entered into a US.-Canada Clean Energy Dialogue that will cooperate on several critical energy science and technology issues in pursuit of a clean Environment, it is time to acknowledge, without any reservations, that Canadians have indeed turned a corner on energy efficiency and the environment.
 
With UBCO and cities like Kelowna fully engaged in employing these technologies, sustainable neighbourhoods and communities are becoming a reality.  Hope you will join me at one of these events to learn how we can do more to make our community and country an even safer and healthier place to live and work.

Ron Cannan is the MP for Kelowna-Lake Country and can be reached at ron@cannan.ca or at his Capri Mall Constituency Office @ 470-5075.