Sewage-to-heat neighbourhood energy centre live

VANCOUVER -- North America’s first neighbourhood energy centre which uses sewage to create enough heat and hot water for the Olympic Village and thousands of new homes and businesses in southeast False Creek was switched on Thursday.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said the $30 million False Creek Energy Centre located under the south end of the Cambie Bridge “would keep 2,800 athletes and officials warm during the Olympics.”

He said it was a momentous occasion in Vancouver’s attempt to become a world leader in green energy and in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

“This marks the first time in North America that heat recovered from untreated waste water is being used in an urban centre. Waste water heat recovery out of this plant will account for about 70 per cent of the neighbourhood’s annual energy requirements,” said Robertson.

He said it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50 per cent compared to the use of natural gas for heating.

(Three of the Olympic residences would produce solar powered energy from installations on their roofs which will be added to the system, he said.)

The system is widely used in Europe especially in Denmark where such centres can be found throughout Copenhagen, said Robertson.

Project manager Chris Baber said sewage is pumped into the facility, strained, then passed through heat pumps which produces heat which in turn heats water used to provide heating for buildings and hot water. The sewage is then pumped into the sewage collection system and taken to the Iona sewage treatment plant in Richmond.

Baber said the facility would meet the energy requirements for 16,000 residents in the southeast False Creek area which stretches along Second Avenue from Cambie to Main.

All new development in the area will be added to the system. It will cost consumers “within 10 per cent” of what they would expect to pay for gas or electric heat, he said.

With Robertson were federal Sports Minister Gary Lunn, Vancouver-Fraserview MLA Margaret MacDiarmid and Surrey City Councillor Marvin Hunt representing the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).

The federal government put $9.45 million into the project from the Gas Tax Fund while the FCM invested $5 million from its Green Municipal Fund. Vancouver City paid for the rest.

The facility took more than three years to build and will be operated by a staff of two.

gbellett@vancouversun.com