City looking to cut emissions by 12 over next five years
The City of Kelowna is adjusting its targets when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Between 2007 and 2016, the city's corporate operations registered a 7% decrease in emissions, despite a 3% increase in annual consumption, which is partially due to a vehicle fleet that's increased 40%.
Energy Program Manager Bryden Tollefson says that's an area that's on the brink of big changes.
"Electric vehicles is going to change the way the fleet operates significantly in the future. So that's one of the things that we're looking at, is what role does the city play in that conversion to electric vehicles, as well as which of our vehicles can we start converting over to electric," he said.
"You can't do it with all vehicles. Waste collection isn't at a point where it could go to electric vehicles, for example."
At Monday's council meeting, Tollefson was asked about the potential of adding "smart" technology to the lights, where sensors would track things like snow accumulation on a street.
He says the LEDs the city's bought could possibly add that technology in the future, but that it's still unproven.
"The lights are supposed to last for 15-20 years, and we don't even know that the controls will last more than 10. So really, I think it's something that the street light department needs to look at in the next go around. Because by then, we're going to see a major shift in probably street lighting in general anyway, who knows where LEDs will be at, along with the communication controls and things like that."
When it comes to cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions, Kelowna's major project this year is the conversion of streetlights to LEDs.
That'll create 62% reduction in annual kilowatt hours, which is equal to the consumption of more than 400 homes.
Tollefson says that's just the beginning of the overhauls.
"I do believe there's a lot of opportunity beyond what's been highlighted. The next five years really is going to be a bit of a building period, where we can come back with a lot more projects and a lot more policies and directions that we want to take," he said.
"One thing to highlight with that is that a lot of the quick win and low-hanging fruit opportunities have almost been exhausted, so one of the ones that might be left would be looking at LED lighting in a lot of our facilities. But once we get past that, we're going to have to put a lot more effort and analysis to achieve the same savings moving forward."
The city's last energy and emissions plan in 2011 had committed to having a 22% drop in emissions, between '07 and the end of last year.
In its new plan, staff want to see an adjusted target of a 12% reduction by 2022.
