St. Albert Place will add nearly 500 solar panels to its roof next year as part of a $14 million eco-retrofit of the building.
St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron and federal Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault sent out a media release March 20 to announce some $13.9 million in funding for an eco-retrofit and modernization of St. Albert Place. The money comes from the city’s repair, maintain, and replacement budget (around $8.3 million) and the federal Green and Inclusive Community Buildings program (roughly $5.7 million).
Buildings are the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada after transportation and oil and gas, Boissonnault said in an interview. These upgrades would cut energy use in St. Albert Place by about 29 per cent and prevent some 559 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year — equivalent to taking 120 cars off the road for a year, the U.S. EPA’s emission calculator suggests.
“It’s going to lead to major energy savings and basically improve the building’s climate resiliency,” said Boissonnault, who grew up in St. Albert.
“The government of Canada is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with St. Albert as they green their local community.”
In the media release, Heron said she was thrilled that St. Albert Place would soon become a showcase for the city’s commitment to being more energy efficient.
“These upgrades to the 39-year-old building not only take into consideration its historic significance, but also directly take action against climate change.”
Green tune-up
City of St. Albert public operations director Karsen Zwiers said this retrofit would see crews update the electrical and air-handling systems at St. Albert Place and fix parts of its roof. Some 90 per cent of the building’s lights will be changed to efficient LED bulbs. The building will also get wider doors for accessibility, new skylights, and six level two electric vehicle charging ports in its parking lot. (The ports will be in the six stalls on the west end of the second row of stalls south of the brick path leading to St. Albert Place, administration reports.)
Zwiers said crews plan to install about 470 solar panels on top of St. Albert Place after they complete roof repairs and HVAC replacements. Another 230 panels may go up later after crews repair other parts of the roof.
Gage Tweedy, the city’s municipal energy specialist, said this array was about one-fifth the size of the one atop Servus Place, weighing in at 228 kilowatts (compared to 1.1 megawatts). The array should prevent some 112 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, or about 16 cars’ worth.
This retrofit will also replace all of St. Albert Place’s double-pane windows with efficient triple-pane ones, including the leaky ones behind the waterfall out front.
The windows in that waterfall weren’t designed to have water running over them all the time and have started to leak, Zwiers said. The new triple-pane ones should be more robust, and (due to their better insulation values) may eliminate the need to have the waterfall running constantly to cool the building. (Instead, it could be saved for special occasions such as farmers’ markets.)
Zwiers said he hoped to have the EV charging stations installed this spring. Crews will spend most of this year finalizing plans and ordering parts for the rest of the retrofit. The lights, solar panels, skylights, roof repairs, and mechanical upgrades should happen next year, with the windows scheduled to be installed in 2025. The whole project should be complete by 2026.
Details on the retrofit can be found at stalbert.ca/sap.
