Whenever I point to the Jets Stadium and the establishment of the Vauxhall Baseball Academy as an example of a very successful local and rural infrastructure investment that has yielded some great economic development and social dividends, the response is overwhelmingly positive.
Often, it’s outright astonishment. During the course of the 2012 National Infrastructure Summit, I was pulled aside dozens of times by those who remarked, “What a great story!”
Yes, it is. But the story’s not finished. That’s because the Jets Stadium Society—a non-profit organization struck to develop and maintain the ball field—has no shortage of plans for the future.
Innovation: Water
I first checked out construction at the ball field a couple of summers ago. I think it was 2010. At the time, my brother, Sid, was just finishing up some work on the equipment storage shed, but was quite eager to show me the irrigation set-up for the field. In the far north-west side of the stadium stood a little shed that housed the water pumps and all pipes. The pipes and other “guts” inside were shiny new and painted up in different colours—red and white if I remember it right.
Anyway, the irrigation system is quite unique. Rather than increasing demand on the town’s limited supply of potable water from its small treatment plant, the Jets Stadium draws untreated water from the Bow River Irrigation District (BRID), which is also headquartered in Vauxhall and sources the town’s water.
Using untreated water for irrigation reduces the ecological footprint of the stadium, and is less expensive. I think—again if I remember it right—that the local water treatment plant itself stands in need of some reinvestment. Opting for untreated water avoids adding even more pressure on that piece of infrastructure. However, the stadium does have the capacity—if it’s needed—to switch over to the town’s water supply. So, there’s some great flexibility there too.
As interesting as that set-up is, what really raised my eyebrows was when Bob Miller shared with me his thoughts about heating the field.
“What’s that? You’re gonna heat…”
“The field,” replied Bob.
Innovation: Geothermal
Jets Stadium is a ball field on the western Canadian prairies, where winters are long and cold, even if they are punctuated by chinooks. To extend the playing season by a month on either end, the plan is to eventually replace the natural grass infield with Perfect Turf—artificial grass designed in Canada, and couple that with a geo-thermal heat sink underneath the field to warm it up when the weather is cold.
Geothermal heating and cooling is a renewable source of energy that has been around for years, but it is only recently beginning to take hold in a substantial way. Depending on local climate and soil conditions, the temperature of the earth 20 feet below the surface tends to remain at a constant temperature between 10-15 degrees Celsius, regardless of the ambient temperature at the surface. Thus, there is a heat differential. This heat differential can be tapped for purposes of both heating and cooling. Geothermal is very efficient because no energy conversion is required. Whenever energy has to be converted (e.g., burning natural gas to heat) there is always some loss in efficiency.
According to Bob, the cost of adapting this technology to the field would be around the $200,000 to $250,000 range, and the Society is looking at different ways to try and make it happen. The concept has already been presented to the town’s local MP, with the argument being that this would be a great test case to test and prove out a unique application of geothermal.
Bob has also been talking with—well—the Hutterites at Copperfield Colony. The colony has gone completely geo-thermal on all their new housing units. There is no natural gas in their housing. Members of the colony consider themselves to be “experts in the field” and are sharing their insight on how it might be applied to Jets Stadium. According to Bob, the colony has said they would even share some of their gravel reserves for the project. I know very little about such things, but I guess geo-thermal requires a lot of gravel, which might be in abundant supply but still not cheap.
Some quick research on the usage of geothermal reveals the following. First, usage is growing by about 10% annually. That’s a rapid rate of growth. Second, it can result in 30% to 70% savings over traditional heating systems, and maintenance costs are also lower. While recent data is hard to secure, as of 2004 about 70 countries were using it in some shape or form (Click here for more information).
Worldwide, about 30 gigawatts of energy consumed is produced geothermally. Systems in the US account for about 8 gigawatts, followed by Sweden at 4 gigawatts, and China with 3 gigawatts. Since I don’t even know what a gigawatt is, I looked it up. It’s 1,000 megawatts or one billion watts. A standard incandescent light bulb ranges from 40 to 100 watts.
At the 2012 National Infrastructure Summit, I facilitated a workshop group session on innovative ways to finance infrastructure. A recurring theme was finding ways to secure savings in operating budgets through greater energy efficiency and technology, and then re-direct the savings to capital budgets. Geothermal is one such potential source, and my panelists described how it can be applied to buildings to help reduce costs. Other options included things like solar panels on rooftops and LED lighting, both inside buildings and the streetlights.
Eyebrows went up after I wedged into the discussion the prospect of using it for a ball field. As usual, commentary is more than welcome. Cheers to all from Regina.
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst