Drake Landing Solar Community.

The Drake Landing Solar Community (DLSC) is a master planned neighbourhood in the Town of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada that has successfully integrated Canadian energy efficient technologies with a renewable, unlimited energy source – the sun. The result is the first community to obtain all its water and space-heating needs from solar energy.

SOlar panels on the roof of every garage heat a glycol solution. The heated glycol travels along the roof overhang, down the end of the garage, and underground through a shallow buried trench system until it arrives at a heat exchanger within the community’s Energy Centre. The heat exchanger transfers heat to the water stored in a short-term storage tank.

During the warmer months, the heated water is distributed from the short-term storage tank to the borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) system via a series of pipes. The pipes run through a collection of 144 holes that stretch thirty-seven meters below the ground and cover an area thirty-five metres in diameter.

As the heated water travels through the pipe-work, heat is transferred to the surrounding earth. The temperature of the earth will reach 80 degrees Celsius by the end of each summer.

To keep the heat in, the BTES is covered with sand, high-density R-40 insulation, a waterproof membrane, clay, and other landscaping materials.

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