If everybody agrees the technology is great, why is nothing being done?

Toronto Star: Tyler Hamilton

There was an informal lunch last week in the executive dining room of RBC Financial, organized by Corporate Knights editor Toby Heaps. The purpose of the small get-together was to discuss ways to spur the large-scale deployment of geo-exchange energy systems for the heating and cooling of buildings.

A number of stakeholders were represented, among them RBC, Manitoba Hydro and Hydro One, but commercial builder The Remington Group, geothermal utility start-up GeoXperts and carbon offset champion Zerofootprint also shared their views.

As discussion unfolded, one thing became clear: All saw the tremendous potential for mass deployment of geo-exchange technology, both as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Ontario and as a way to save owners of buildings and homes a bundle of money over time.

Geo-exchange technology, also known as low-temperature geothermal, provides heating and cooling by taking advantage of constant temperatures two metres or more below the Earth’s surface. It’s renewable and free of greenhouse gas emissions, and while it requires electricity to operate, it considerably reduces the fossil fuels or power required to operate conventional heating and cooling systems.

“I think we’re on to something, and I think it’s the way of the future,” said Richard Tripodi, vice-president of Remington’s high-rise division.

Ron Dembo, founder and chief executive of Zerofootprint, said there are 140,000 new buildings being constructed in Canada each year and about 700,000 homes in Ontario still heated with electricity, making them prime candidates for geothermal.

Locally, hundreds of schools across the GTA have a mandate to be green and a need for energy savings – which could be in the order of 30 per cent a year if existing systems were enhanced with geothermal technology.

“They would do geothermal now if the ducks were lined up, and there’s no good reason the ducks aren’t lined up,” said Dembo.

Commercial buildings in general are a massive opportunity. There are 395,000 commercial buildings across Canada that together account for about 15 per cent of energy use nationwide, according to a report released Friday by Sustainable Development Technology Canada. We’re talking schools and universities, office buildings, retail outlets, warehouses, hospitals and restaurants.

About 40 per cent of those buildings were built more than 35 years ago based on construction techniques, technologies and standards that would never pass muster today in terms of energy efficiency. More than two-thirds of the energy used in these buildings – largely electricity and natural gas – goes toward space heating, cooling and hot water.

If embracing geothermal is a no-brainer, then why isn’t it happening? Why all the talk, all the agreement, but no action?

“It’s because of institutional barriers,” said Dembo, explaining that a combination of government bureaucracy and a lack of access to capital tend to block or discourage action.

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