ÉÙ¸¾Ãâ·ÑÖ±²¥

Camosun's Energy Plan

Camosun's five-year Energy Plan concluded on a high note in March 2013, greatly exceeding its targets and resulting in:

• over $2.7 Million contributed to the fiscal bottom line in avoided costs and new equipment/infrastructure
• in 2012, over $400,000 was saved in electricity and gas consumption combined (compared to the 2005 baseline)
• the goal of saving 200 tonnes of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2012 (5-year target) was more than quadrupled with an 828 tonne reduction
• Carbon offsets worth over $48,500 each year, entirely compensating for Camosun's annual carbon tax of $40,500

Please see Camosun Energy Project Charter PDF for the planning details and learn more about Carbon Neutral goals and action reporting.

Energy Plan – Going Forward

Camosun plans to continue with a program of energy management, setting new goals and targets for the future. The college will continue to identify energy performance, factors and trends. Our focus will be on identifying energy savings retrofit opportunities, new building developments (such as the Centre for Trades Education and Innovation) and Power Smart incentive opportunities.

Building retrofits

Camosun also received funding from the Public Sector Energy Conservation Agreement (PSECA) to perform energy saving retrofits to both campuses. Energy saving retrofits to Interurban campus were completed in 2011, and in 2012 the Lansdowne energy retrofit project was implemented. This project targeted energy efficiency, replacing gas burners with air-to-water heat pumps, installing a solar hot-water heating system and pioneering a solution for recycling welding exhaust gases to save on heating bills.

As part of the project, the entire lighting system in the Fisher building was replaced (shift from fluorescent lighting to T5s and electronic ballasts). Additionally, the five major buildings at Camosun's Interurban campus are enrolled in the BC Hydro Continuous Optimization program to ensure the ongoing efficiency of existing operations.

Additional retrofit projects are completed on a case-by-case, ongoing basis. As a general policy, when ageing or malfunctioning equipment is due for replacement at Camosun, it is replaced by higher efficiency products. Some examples include:

• Old boilers were replaced by high efficiency Condensate Boilers.
• Old lighting replaced with LED or higher efficiency fluorescent lighting
• Heating and cooling pumps that would needlessly run at full capacity have had Speed Drives added to their control to vary their output based on demand.
• Several areas on campus have had heat exchanges added to recover and reintroduce heat from exhaust systems back into the buildings.

Alternative transportation

• Alternative Transportation Campaign: increasing awareness and promoting alternative travel choices such as cycling, transit, walking or carpooling.
• Bike Repair: Fix-it Stations on both campuses
• Camosun Express Pilot: Providing direct travel between the Lansdowne and Interurban campuses.  The Camosun Express will help reduce carbon gas emissions by reducing single occupancy vehicle (SOV) intercampus travel. Data from the 2011 Getting Here survey indicates that of those who travel between campuses, 65% do so alone.
• Cycling Challenge 2014: 97 riders (both students and staff), four teams, and a total of 9,054.2 commuting kilometres logged in just 2 short weeks.
• Bike to Work: celebrations and support for Bike to Work Day and Bike to Work Week.
• Videoconferencing: With two campuses, Camosun employees with help from the ITS department make active use of videoconferencing to reduce travel time and GHGs.

Solar technology

Solar Array, Electric Vehicle and E-Bike Charging Stations

School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Lead: Ross Lyle

With funding from President's Funds 2013 grants, ÉÙ¸¾Ãâ·ÑÖ±²¥ has installed a 4 KW Solar Photo