When developing the idea for the new $2.5-million state-of-the-art Hearst Regional Green Technologies Centre, the community had two main focuses.
One was business, and the other sustainable development.
“It focuses on a mandate that looks at Northern issues and rural issues that’s relevant here in the North,” said Desneiges Larose, sustainable development plan co-ordinator for the Town of Hearst. “There’s definitely a need to cater resources that reflect the realities in rural and Northern areas.”
The venue will become an interpretive place where anyone will be able to go and visit, and see on display, for example, how much power people are producing, how much power people are using and where they are using it.
The centre will help guide individuals, and communities, into using proper green technologies based on their regional and cultural location.
“Northern Ontario has a very specific geographic, cultural and business culture, and it’s very different,” said Larose. “You have to have an approach that has the proper technology and the proper type of policy.
“The way you’re going to approach community development in Toronto is very different than other places.”
She said the centre can be a representation of how technology can be adapted for a specific need.
“But it’s also about translating it as well,” she said. “Because if you give someone a 275-page document that talks about photovoltaics applications, that might not want them to turn to that kind of technology for their own application.”
The centre will translate that information in a way that can actually work for people and for communities, she said.
The building has a rectangular-shaped back facing perfectly south, in an effort to capture as much sun as possible.
“Form follows function,” said Pierre Belanger, owner of Strategik Builders, the company in charge of construction. “So the form of this building is shaped for the function of the building.”
Of the two solar panels at the back, one five-kilowatt PV solar panel is on a fixed system, while the other five-kilowatt solar panel is on a tracker.
“So one follows the sun and the other is fixed,” said Belanger. “This way we can compare data.”
The power is then sold to the Ontario Power Authority, which results in revenue coming to the centre.
Just beside each panel there is also a two-kilowatt horizontal wind turbine that will provide the primary power for the building.
“Obviously it’s not enough,” said Belanger. “But the way it works is the demands for electricity are taken first from the wind turbine, and the rest from the grid.”
Also buried 150 feet into the ground right underneath the solar panels are 10 piles of geothermal wells that will provide heat and air conditioning for the entire building.
“There’s also nine or 10 solar tubes that will give maximum lighting for the building,” he said.
Set with a motion censor, the lights will be on when needed while consuming a minimum amount of electricity.
“All the lights left on, such as the exit lights, will be fed off of the solar system,” said Belanger. “So any lights that are going to be left here at night won’t cost anything.”
When developing the building, Belanger said the entire project was a local product.
The siding on the outside of the building is made from white spruce, which comes from Smoky Falls, on a piece of land that was recclaimed at the lower Mattagami hydro dam projects.
The rest of the building's exterior is made from two-by-fours produced in town by Tembec Forest Products.
All the concrete is mixed locally as well.
“We wanted local product and that was the main thing of the design,” said Belanger. “We sat down and we took a look at all the material and craftsmanship that was available and tried to use all the different products and put them in the building.”
The centre is expected to be up and running in October of this year.
