The Regional District of Nanaimo plans to reduce the carbon footprint of Parksville’s Oceanside Place, which produces the second-highest amount of greenhouse emissions of all the buildings under RDN jurisdiction.
The building runs up a tab of approximately $180,000 annually in energy costs.
The RDN is working on the Oceanside Place Arena Emission Reduction and Energy Retrofit Project, which will cost $720,000. The initiative will reduce annual natural gas usage by 90 per cent as well as associated gas emissions by 90 per cent. It will save the RDN about $41,090 annually and $863,877 lifetime in natural gas cost.
READ MORE: Regional District of Nanaimo works to become carbon neutral by 2032
The energy conservation measures the RDN plans to introduce include using the waste heat from the arena’s refrigeration plant to heat up other areas of the building, integrating existing air handling units into the energy recovery loop, and replacing a dehumidifier at the end of its useful life with a higher-efficiency unit.
The RDN board, at its regular meeting April 26, endorsed a staff recommendation to allocate up to $650,00 from the regional district’s Climate Action Reserve Incentive Program and $70,000 from the arena services budget to cover the cost of the project up front.
T0 reduce the cost of the project, the board approved staff recommendation that RDN apply to the 2022 Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program CleanBC Communities Fund, which funds initiatives that reduces emissions. If successful, the grant would reimburse the RDN by approximately 73 per cent, which equates to $525,600. It will leave the RDN to cover the balance of $194,400, plus a $20,000 contingency.