Village of Burns Lake is moving towards a goal of energy efficiency with its Corporate Energy and Emissions Plan.
In a presentation made to the council on Jan. 10, Sashka Macievich, the Village of Burns Lake’s finance director said, in 2022 the village of Burns Lake had total emissions of Greenhouse gas (GHG) of 372 tonnes. She said this figure is equivalent to a round trip to Prince George 3546 times, powering 217 homes for one year, collecting trash from 372 households for a year, and raising 1,116 cows.
The report states that the highest greenhouse gas emitter was found in the Tom Forsyth Memorial Arena.
Macievich said that the arena generates a lot of heat, which needs to be cooled down and that transition makes a lot of heat loss, which could be reused.
She added that the new arena chiller will be able to save energy costs since it will use some of the heat energy that had been produced before.
By incorporating this plan, Macievich anticipates that the emissions could be reduced by 6 per cent in 2030 and 14 per cent in 2050. However, the provincial agreement for GHG emission reduction states that 35 per cent by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050 need to be reduced, compared to the 2022 baseline.
Right now, an energy audit is being conducted in Burns Lake, which is expected to be completed in early 2024, and findings from that report will help identify areas of improvement to save more energy.
At the end of the presentation, Mayor Wiebe decided that the Corporate Energy and Emissions Plan needs to be adopted and directed to develop a policy on funding GHG emission reductions, according to the Community Energy Association’s report. Council agreed to it.