City of Kelowna Solar Powered Projects Initiatives by the City of Kelowna have put it on the map as a innovators of energy efficiency and greener living. In 2008, Kelowna was awarded Solar Community of the Year, from SolarBC, for its history of sustainable development and energy management. As part of the city’s plan to reduce its overall energy in municipal buildings by 20 per cent in 2010, Kelowna has embarked on several solar projects in recent years, helped along the way by a $500,000 grant from the federal government. Solar-powered lights, parking kiosks and pedestrian signals, as well as plans for the installation retrofit of solar hot water to the Athans Aquatic Center, are all initiatives the city is taking to educate the community and businesses on the feasibility of this alternative heating source. The City of Kelowna is working with Carmanah Technologies Corporation to equip the community’s parks, paths and other public spaces with solar-powered LED lighting technology as part of its commitment to sustainability. The City will install 100 Carmanah EverGEN™ solar-powered area lights over the next 12 months. The sunshine city, Kelowna receives more than 2000 hours of sunshine a year making it a great location for solar energy technology. The Kelowna project will be the largest installation of the EverGEN to date. In addtion to this project, the City has installed 22 solar-powered parking kiosks in the downtown and 51 solar-powered pedestrian signals. More information check out the City of Kelowna website.

Fipke Centre a first for UBC Okanagan Officially opened on Nov. 24, 2008, the new Charles E. Fipke Centre for Innovative Research adds 70,000 square feet of space and opens up new possibilities for teaching and research at UBC Okanagan. The $31.5-million facility includes computer labs, a 300-seat theatre, classrooms and lecture theatres, wet and dry labs and 65 offices. The Fipke Centre is the first new building to be completed as part of UBC Okanagan's campus master plan. It is also the first building to use the campus geoexchange groundwater energy system for heating and cooling — a system that will eventually provide heating and cooling to every new and existing academic building on campus. Once finished, the campus-wide geoexchange system is projected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 88 per cent, or 2,959 tonnes per year, equivalent to taking 14,000 cars off the road over the next two decades. The cost avoidance for UBC Okanagan's geoexchange heating and cooling system — which takes the place of traditional natural gas systems — will be $350,000 per year when existing buildings and four academic buildings currently under construction are connected. In the future, annual cost avoidance will grow to an estimated $610,000 once the entire campus master plan has been built out. The Fipke Centre's design earned an unprecedented five Green Globes from the Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada, an award reserved for designs serving as national or world leaders in energy and environmental performance. Another environmentally sustainable feature of the Fipke Centre is its wind tower, which intercepts air, reclaims heat and redistributes it back into the piping system, ensuring there is fresh air in the building at all times. Charles Fipke, the Kelowna geologist who donated $5 million to help make the centre possible, has given an additional $2 million to equip a new mass spectroscopy lab that will expand the university’s research capacity in geology, chemistry and other fields.

Paige Guernsey Coldwell Banker Horizon Realty #14 - 1470 Harvey Ave Kelowna, BC V1Y 9K8 email: paige@kelownahome.com Phone: 250.862.6464 Fax:  250.868.2488 Websites: www.greenkelownarealestate.com www.kelownahome.com