Okanagan Centre of Excellence

Last Monday I had a chance to visit Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable Energy Conservation at Okanagan College - Penticton. Long name indeed - they really need to come up with a nice abbreviation :)

Although different in appearance, this buildings has a lot in common with the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability at UBC-Vancouver (see my previous posts).  Both were conceived with the goal to become one of the greenest building in North America if not the world. Both aim at "net-zero" energy target (CIRS actually aims at becoming "net-positive"). The size and the budget are comparable.

They share many of the same technologies - solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, geothermal, passive ventilation, rainwater collection, green roof and use many of eco-friendly materials, for example BC-famous pine-beetle wood. Interestingly too, structural engineering for both (as for number of other distinguished buildings) was performed by the famous Vancouver-based firm Fast+Epp.

There are also some differences, apart from the obvious difference in architectural style. While UBC CIRS incorporated PV elements in the awnings and skylights in a very aesthetic way, the Penticton  Centre chose traditional PV modules, but covered as much roof space as they could (1100 Conergy modules), thus making it the largest PV installation in Western Canada. 

The designers of the Penticton Centre also incorporated some of the newer technologies like tubular skylights and SunCentral light concentrators.  

I had a privilege and a pleasure to meet and to talk to Peter Haubrich, a well-known innovator and promoter of new, particularly clean technologies, who is now responsible for the Business Development and Industry Partnership at the Centre of Excellence.