HomeMy WebLinkAboutDSD-19-047 - Net Zero Energy Feasibility StudyREPORT TO:Community & Infrastructure Services Committee
DATE OF MEETING:March 18, 2019
SUBMITTED BY:Alain Pinard, Director of Planning
PREPARED BY:Brandon Sloan, Manager, Long Range & Policy Planning
519-741-2200 ext. 7648
WARD(S) INVOLVED:All Wards
DATE OF REPORT:March 7, 2019
REPORT NO.:DSD-19-047
SUBJECT:FCM/GMF Feasibility Study:
Municipal Tools for Catalyzing Net-Zero Energy Development
RECOMMENDATION:
FCM/GMF Feasibility Study: Municipal Tools for
Catalyzing Net-Zero Energy Development
interested stakeholders; and
That the results of the -
be used to conduct specific business cases,establish targets
and engage with landowners for one or more pilot projects for:
Areas undergoing significant redevelopment, such as the King/Victoria area
The planning of new communities or neighbourhoods
Other City-owned land that may be deemed surplus and available for development;
and further
That,through continuous improvement, the City refine its development review process
to allow for ease of implementation of net-zero energy development.
BACKGROUND:
Since 1984, the City of Kitchener adopted Official Plan policies regarding energy conservation
and generation related to its urban form (see attached Appendix A for the original policies).
Thirty-five years later, the feasibility of constructing a development that approaches or can
-(FCM) identified
that the building industry and et-Zero construction is one of the most powerful opportunities
to create environmental and economic benefit, and that municipalities should play a leadership
role in helping the industry to adapt to Net-Zero Energy construction.
In 2016, the City of Kitchener partnered with the Cities of London, Waterloo and Kingston on a
Feasibility Study that received a grant from FCM via the Green Municipal Fund. While there are
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numerous examples of low energy or sustainable developments throughout the world, including
evolv1within Waterloo Region, it was important to understand more about the technologies,
financial -t
at the neighbourhood or large redevelopment scale. The scope of the Feasibility Study is in the
f greenhouse gas reduction/energy conservation/climate change.
What is Net ZeroEnergy Development?
Net-Zero Energy: -
produces all the energy it consumes on an annual basis, from on-site resources which are
renewable. The building / project may or may not be connected to a utility grid or energy
storage system. It will have means to generate energy on site, and it will have means to
access and use that energy over time not necessarily exactly when it was generated.
Net-Zero Energy Building: A building which produces as much energy (including
both electrical power and heat) as it consumes on a yearly basis.
Net-Zero Energy Community: A community which produces as much energy as it
consumes on a yearly basis. Some buildings may generate more energy than others,
but as a community, they will together offset their combined annual energy demand.
The in-progress development in the City of London shown in Figure 1, along with other
projects and municipal initiatives, inspired the preparation of a joint study to provide
municipalities with additional information and a tool-kit for catalyzing Net-Zero Energy
buildings and communities.
Figure 1: SiftonProperties Limited-The Future of Housing | West5(London, ON) www.West5.ca
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REPORT:
Feasibility Study
Over the past two years, a consultant team has compiled a significant amount of information
on the design strategies, practices employed by others, policies and programs, and financial
strategies related to this topic. A series of case-studies in each of the partnering
municipalities covered a range of contextual issues and resulted in a number of trends and
key findings. The concluding aspects of the study provide technical, financial and policy
directions for how a municipality can work towards Net-Zero Energy Development.
Appendix B to this report provides an Executive Summary of the in-depth, comprehensive
study and related appendices. Through the analysis of the case studies, this helped to
summarize the technologies that enable Net-Zero Energy at the community scale,
summarize the financial and incentive models that may be pertinent, analyze the challenges
that were encountered and resulted in a consolidation of findings and recommendations. The
preliminary results of the full study are posted at: https://s2etech.com/fcm-gmf/. The key
recommendations offered for municipalities include:
Benchmarking District Energy
Training Community Improvement Plan
Continuous Learning Celebrate
Consider Solar Right-to-Light
Implications for Kitchener
Currently, there is policy direction for more sustainable development, such as Net-Zero
Energy development. Governments are working to develop and adopt increasingly energy
efficient building requirements, with the goal that provinces and territories adopt -Zero
E.
The Net-Zero Energy Feasibility Study outlines the tools available for municipalities and
developers to pursue implementation at the neighbourhood scale. For the City of Kitchener,
two distinct case studies were examined a major, urban area redevelopment site within the
Innovation District and a greenfield demonstration site. The results provide guidance for what
technologies could be employed and what adjustments would be needed in order to get close
to or achieve Net-Zero Energy in both instances. Of interest is that there may be less
challenges within a new-build, greenfield context.
Given that there are prime opportunities, the City should pursue the next steps of
implementing the policy direction and feasibility study. Candidate locations include the
King/Victoria/Innovation District area, other major redevelopment sites such as the former
Schneiders/Maple Leaf Foods site, or new areas undergoing Secondary Plans such as
Hidden Valley and the new Southwest Kitchener Urban Area. Situations with single land
holders may be more challenging; however, with 3rd party energy provider/operators and
where the City owns land there may be greater potential for success. In addition to energy
efficiency, locations such as the Innovation District and surrounding sites would also be able
to achieve a greater degree of active transportation and transit use along with other measures
to be more sustainable.
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The Feasibility Study provides a sample Community Improvement Plan (CIP) as a
recommendation for municipalities to consider should financial incentive programs be a
desirable course of action until this type of development is more commonplace or required.
The existing City of Kitchener Energy and Water Efficiency for Land and Buildings CIP
(currently with no active, funded programs) was used as the model template for other
municipalities to consider.
Relation to Other Initiatives
projects,
provide policy basis and master plan direction to work towards more sustainable
development. This Feasibility Study now provides the City with the needed information about
the technologies, financial aspects and process issues. The environment and sustainability
continue to always be themes within surveys for community priorities and Strategic Plans.
Kitchener and its partner municipalities have an approved Community Climate Action Plan
and adopted a community GHG reduction target to 2050. The Region and local municipalities
also co-funded the implementation of the approved Community Energy Investment Strategy.
This Net-Zero Energy Feasibility Study aligns with these important climate change and
energy initiatives and moves the City closer to implementation.
ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN:
Strategic Priority #4 Sustainable Environment and Infrastructure
Business Plan Project #NB13 Sustainable Development Feasibility Study
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
Fund and the partnership of the City of London, City of Kitchener, City of Waterloo, and City of
ies capital account.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
INFORM This report will the
Committee meeting.
This study involved internal and inter-municipal collaboration.
Environmental Committee
A full presentation of this report was made to the February 21, 2019 Environmental Committee
meeting. There were a number of clarification questions and discussion points. In summary,
members expressed a high interest for this topic and desire for Kitchener to move forward with
development that can utilize more of the technologies discussed in the study. It was noted that
for larger intensification projects, some form of co-generation (district/distributed energy) system
would likely be needed. Although the staff recommendations identify moving forward with one
or more pilot projects, at least one member identified that this should be the standard for all
es. The Committee endorsed the staff recommendations
and made one additional recommendation:
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This is reasonable as it aligns with the lessons learned from the case studies that were
undertaken within the Feasibility Study and is similar to one of the current actions from the
Community Energy Investment Strategy implementation.
CONCLUSION:
Kitchener is fairly well-positioned to move towards more sustainable development, such as Net-
Zero Energy. Through this, and the implementation of the Community Energy Investment
Strategy, further engagement with the local utilities and the development industry is required to
consider the technologies, finances and logistics. Local energy independence and reducing
environmental impacts while still having positive economic development can help enhance
overall quality of life.
ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Justin Readman, General Manager, Development Services
ATTACHMENTS:
Appendix A Energy Policies (1977 Official Plan, as amended in 1984)
Appendix B Executive Summary FCM/GMF Feasibility Study: Municipal Tools for Catalyzing
Net-Zero Energy Development
Appendix C - Presentation
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APPENDIX BFCM/GMF Feasibility Study:
Municipal Tools for Catalyzing Net-Zero Energy Development
municipalities and developers alike. It is easier today than ever before to build communities which
provide all of their own energy needs and which leverage smart and sustainable design principles.
Most current planning and development processes within municipalities do not fully support the
implementation of such initiatives, which often involve technical and financial complexities that
can cause delays with the municipal approvals processes, and which thus become dis-incentives
against pursuing more sustainable construction.
To address this and related challenges, this study will look at eight different development projects
as case studies at diverse stages across four mid-sized growing cities in Ontario (two projects per
city), evaluating what would be necessary in order to enable the project to provide all of its own
energy on-site, by assessing three complementary and interdependent focusses:
Technical Feasibility: This study will look at different technologies used in advanced energy-
efficient buildings and communities and will assess which are feasible for widespread use today,
what types of projects each technology is best suited for, and what technologies can be used to
achieve net-zero energy performance in each of the eight chosen cases.
Financial Feasibility: This study will evaluate funding and incentive models which can be used
to offset the costs of including advanced technologies that help attain net-zero energy on the
neighbourhood / community scale.
Policy / Process Feasibility: This study will involve shadow-permitting discussions, where each
partner municipality will participate in a mock-trial approval process. Each project will be
conceptually redesigned to achieve net-zero energy, and the cities will be asked to assess and
contribute their understanding of what would be required for them to issue construction approvals
for the design concepts being studied. This will help to identify policy and process challenges
and proactive means by which those challenges may be resolved.
Interestingly, much of the challenge with building better is based on the assumption that this must
cost more. In reality, the technology markets (like solar PV and LED lighting) and the best-in-
class building programs (like ENERGY STAR, LEED, and others) have enjoyed tremendous
success over the past ten years, and costs are much more reasonable than they were previously.
This is likely to become even more true with the implementation of new climate action strategies
at the Federal and Provincial levels. However, these technologies and programs are still new to
city officials and developers, and it can be challenging to get a building permit for a building that
is innovative.
The eight project sites included in this study together represent a sufficiently diverse pool of cases
that they are generally representative of most of the development scenarios that municipalities
typically experience, and will therefore provide a highly transferrable and repeatable set of results
for use not only by the participating partners (who will of course benefit the most), but also for all
other Canadian municipalities.
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Results:
This report includes a series of case studies and appendices which:
1. Summarize the technologies that enable net-zero energy at the community or
neighbourhood level for various types of project sites, with some guidance about where
those technologies are best used and where they are not;
2. Summarize the financial and incentive models that have been used across Canada, with
comments on their relative strengths and weaknesses, and with comments about how
municipalities can provide cost effective incentives that maximize returns for the tax base,
while also maximizing effectiveness for the development industry;
3. Analyze the challenges encountered during the permit and approvals process for
advanced construction designs, and offer comment on proactive ways which municipalities
can reduce and eliminate as many barriers as possible, streamlining administrative
processes;
4. Consolidate the above findings into a template policy in the form of a Community
Improvement Plan (CIP) with accompanying enablement programs, which could be
adapted and adopted in part or in whole by any Canadian municipality, particularly those
in Ontario, and which would serve as a consolidated best-practice reference guide of
incentive programs that may be used to catalyze the development of net-zero energy smart
communities across Canada.
This study is intended to provide the development industry with municipal support that is effective.
It will help site owners to understand how to effectively and affordably make their developments
more sustainable, and will provide them with examples they may adapt to their own use. The eight
participating sites will be provided with practical support from s2e Technologies in identifying
which technologies and strategies will best enable their projects to pursue net-zero energy
performance, and the development industry in general will benefit from the generalized results of
the case studies. The eight participating projects will further benefit from process / policy support
from the participating municipalities, which should enable proactive resolution to challenges that
might otherwise be encountered during the permitting and approvals process.
Recommendations for Municipalities
The report offers several conclusions across technical / financial / process topics, and culminates
with a set of seven recommendations for municipalities to consider:
1. Benchmark: Assess the capabilities of your local industry. Identify key stakeholders
among builders, suppliers, non-profits and others who are respected local leaders,
innovators, and potential advisors to the municipality.
2. Training: After reviewing this report, especially chapters 3 and 4, consider what training
might be necessary for your municipal staff, and what topics might be most helpful for
them to understand better.
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3. Continuous Learning: Adopt a formalized continuous learning program for municipal
staff. Capture lessons and experiences as they occur: consider scheduling periodic meetings
(perhaps quarterly) to discuss lessons and experiences from recent projects or activities.
Document them formally and adapt municipal process (as appropriate) in response.
first on these learnings and then perhaps on review of various technologies from chapter 3
of this report.
4. Consider implementing a Solar Right-To-Light bylaw to help reduce risk for developers
who are considering investing in solar systems on properties affected by potential nearby
redevelopment / intensification.
5. District Energy: Consider implementing any of the solutions in Appendix C: Enabling
Policy for District Energy, to proactively define a method by which district energy
proponents can participate in local energy markets.
6. CIP: Review the draft Community Improvement Plan included in Appendix D, including
all of the proposed programs attached to that plan. Adapt it for your local context and
implement the p
mindful of the observations and recommendations of section 4.7 starting on page 112 (eg:
about program stability, simplicity, target audience, setting reasonable expectations, etc.),
and of the strengths of your local industry (refer to recommendation 1 above on
benchmarking). Refine this draft CIP into something for use in your local municipality,
and then review with local stakeholders. Programs in this CIP do not need to be funded
immediately, and discussions of funding method should not delay a discussion on what
programs will be most helpful for your local municipality: separate those discussions into
two efforts and focus on getting the CIP adapted and adopted as quickly as possible. Then
follow up with budget discussions separately for the following fiscal year, to bring the CIP
into full force.
7. Celebrate: Establish a local marketing plan. Work with local stakeholders to determine
what level of publicity is appropriate for your local green building programs, and to identify
appropriate methods for recognition.
Municipalities who implement the recommendations of this study will be well positioned to help
the development industry transition towards net-zero energy construction, increasing local energy
independence, catalyzing local economic development, reducing environmental impact and
emissions, supporting environmental conservation, and enhancing quality of life.
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