February 2017 | Business View Magazine

216 217 Fort St. John, British Columbia design, and they are charging ahead. They got their funding from the First Nations Health Authority and that health authority is now plan- ning to use that project as a flagship to encour- age other First Nations communities to build to that same standard.” Rogers points out some additional benefits of building a passive house in such a cold, north- ern climate. “If the power goes out, your pipes are not going to freeze,” she states. “It’s not go- ing to drop below 12 degrees in that building, even if the power is out for a week in the mid- dle of winter. So, if you’re in a very rural commu- nity - which a lot of our First Nations are-power outages are a real thing.And they have the com- fort and safety of knowing that if the power goes out, their building is still okay.And because of its superior construction, that building is going to last a hundred years. So, economically it makes sense; in terms of comfort it makes sense. Some First Nations communities are talking about building their elder housing to passive house standards and that would be amazing.” Another innovative project that typifies Fort St. John’s standing as ‘The Energetic City’ is a new, hydroelectric project built on the Peace Preferred vendor n Dependable Turbines Ltd. www.dtlhydro.com River, several miles from the city’s downtown core. The Fort St. John Micro Hydro Project utilizes the energy available in the gravity dis- charge of the sewer effluent from one of the City’s treatment facili- ties. “Anytime you have a liquid flowing downhill there is an oppor- tunity to put a turbine on it – so we did,” says Rogers. This project - the first of its kind in British Columbia - consists of a 100kW tur- bine, a generator, associated controls, and the building, plus 800 meters of channel that was installed parallel to the existing dis- charge pipe down the hillside. It is estimated that the station will generate between $75,000 to $85,000 worth of electricity a year, helping the City to offset its cost of pumping Peace River water out of the valley and into its homes and businesses. Fort St. John has made a strong commitment to sustainability, en- ergy efficiency, and conservation. These two projects are just exam- ples of the many ways in which the City continues to work toward a cleaner and healthier environment - not just for its own citizens, but for British Columbia, Canada, and the world at large. It’s why it’s known as ‘The Energetic City.’