Image: North Branch
Solaire Homes is building 100 net-zero and highly energy-efficient homes in a new neighbourhood in Moncton’s north end that will also be a test site for NB Power and Siemens’ smart grid project.
The neighbourhood, called North Branch, will be New Brunswick’s first solar-powered neighbourhood.
The homes will have the latest smart energy technologies, including home energy management systems, rooftop solar panels and smart energy storage batteries.
“This is a really exciting opportunity to be able to integrate energy-efficient housing with some of the newer technologies that are being developed by NB Power and Siemens,” said Solaire Homes president Paul Arsenault. “We are, in effect, going to be a showcase for some of those new technologies – to prove them, to demonstrate them, to educate people as to how they work, and just be able to employ some of these technologies with the end result to improve the environment.”
The homes will use geothermal heat pumps, air-source heat pumps, and solar panels. The energy will then be stored in batteries in the homes.
“These homes are all going to be connected to NB Power’s electric grid. So the batteries that will be in the homes themselves are really there as a short term backup and as a buffer to moderate electricity that’s going to be exchanged with the grid,” Arsenault said.
Arsenault explains that a net-zero energy home is one that can produce as much energy as it consumes in the average of the year. To ensure that it contributes as much energy to the grid as it takes, it has to have the right technologies and design.
With the national building code constantly improving in terms of energy use, energy efficiency is already top of mind for many builders and developers. For Solaire, the environmental aspect of the project is key.
“If we can capture most of our energy that we need from the sun and from the ground, and we are not as dependent on other sources of energy that might come from fossil fuels and things like that, then we’ve succeeded, and that’s what drives us,” he added.
Brent Staeben, NB Power’s director for Smart Grid Atlantic, said Siemens is developing a nano-grid controller, which will manage the home energy use.
“It will overtime understand how the home is using energy, how much it’s generating from a solar, how much it can store,” he said.
Smart Grid Atlantic Project
North Branch is the second testing site under NB Power, Nova Scotia Power and Siemens’ Smart Grid Atlantic project, a four-year research and demonstration program funded by the federal government.
The first test site was in Shediac, with nearly 500 existing homes participating. It also involved a solar farm and a battery storage system.
A third project related to the work underway in Shediac and North Branch is expected to be announced next year.
The utilities are servicing the test sites and the early users of the technologies that Siemens is developing at its global R&D centre in Fredericton.
The research done through Smart Grid Atlantic will allow NB Power and Siemens to test the new technologies, learn how they work and how to control them, and come up with ways to provide the most benefit to both the homeowners and the utility. Siemens can then also export the technology around the world.
People who want to buy one of the North Branch homes will have to agree to be part of the research.
North Branch is a $10-million project for NB Power, with $3-million of that paid for by the federal government through the Strategic Innovation Fund. The rest is funded by NB Power over five years.
Staeben says the research will help the utility solve key problems, too.
He said the challenge with renewable energy sources like rooftop solar panels is that the grid was traditionally built for a one-way flow of electrons from large energy generating stations to homes. But rooftop solar would create a two-way flow, where the home is also contributing to the grid.
NB Power’s grid can handle that flow in small amounts, but New Brunswick has seen solar installations double in the past year and that’s expected to keep growing.
So in anticipation of “tremendous proliferation of rooftop solar” in the province, NB Power wants to be ready, Staeben said.
“We have a $1.8-billion grid in New Brunswick in terms of the annual cost of running it. So we need to make sure that we protect the grid and ensuring we provide you with all the power they need,” he said.
Additionally, knowing how to store and manage renewable energy would also provide an opportunity for NB Power to solve the peak energy problem that’s utilities everywhere face.
In New Brunswick, that peak is in January, when energy use is almost four times that of July. During that time, NB Power would have to generate extra energy from its power stations, often relying on fossil fuels.
“If you had enough of those solar systems and they could store their energy and we could use it at times when the grid really needs it, then that’s a big opportunity and a big possibility for the utility, too,” Staeben said.
Moncton was chosen as the latest test site because it was the right market, with the right buyers.
“It has to be a big enough market with a hot enough housing market. It had to have the housing market that was interested in this kind of home and a buyer who was interested in being part of this research,” said Staeben. “And then I think on top of that, you had to think of where is it that people want to live?”
Arsenault says there’s “a very strong market” for these types of homes and that Solaire is already seeing a lot of interest.
Moncton also has energy supply challenges thanks to the growth it has experienced in the last two decades.
“When we were putting this together, starting about three years ago, one of the things that was top of mind for us was Moncton is growing so much. How do we make sure Moncton gets the electricity that it needs?” Staeben said.
The hope is for this development to also be an economic driver for the province through the workers that will be contributing to this project. It’s also expected to boost the municipal and provincial tax base.
Inda Intiar is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
