This article was published by The Energy Mix on Nov. 14, 2024.
By Gaye Taylor
British Columbia’s condominium scene has the potential to become a whole lot greener with the recent unveiling of a new condo building’s all-unit EV-ready parking garage and the launch of a strata energy adviser program to help such buildings achieve zero emissions.
In late October, a luxury condo developer in Burnaby, B.C announced “the largest fully electric vehicle parking structure in Canada,” reports the Globe and Mail.
All 1,974 parking spaces in the Hillside stage of Concord Pacific’s four-tower Concord Brentwood condominium project will be EV-ready and charger-equipped.
Concord Pacific is far ahead of the curve, particularly with the charger installations.
While Vancouver’s building code now requires multi-family buildings, including condos, to have EV-ready parking garages, only about 20 per cent of the spaces in those garages are now required to have “actual charging stations,” the Globe writes.
And with sufficient capacity to charge all 1,974 spaces simultaneously, the Globe says Hillside’s electrical system is “well ahead of the industry standard,” though large buildings can also turn to software to manage the load.
It may be some time before all those spaces are filled with electric vehicles. While B.C. leads the nation on adoption, there are still fewer than one million EVs currently registered in Canada.
But Terry Hui, CEO of Concord Pacific Group and Concord Green Energy, sees the shift to all-electric infrastructure as a “no brainer” whose value to the real estate market will steadily increase as EV adoption accelerates.
“Would I buy a place without a washer and dryer in it? Onsite charging in condos “is going to be something people are going to expect to have,” Hui told the Globe.
Recently, as well, Vancouver’s Zero Emissions Innovation Centre (ZEIC) launched its free Strata Energy Adviser program to help condominium buildings reduce carbon emissions and improve their energy efficiency.
“If your building is planning a retrofit and you’re considering—or simply curious about—switching from natural gas, adding cooling, or improving overall building performance, this program could be a great fit for you,” writes ZEIC.
For strata councils that meet EIC’s eligibility criteria and register for the program, an adviser will put together a decarbonization plan that outlines all the steps needed to achieve a zero-emission building over time, if that is their wish. The work of the adviser hardly ends there, however.
“If your strata chooses to pursue a low-carbon project, your adviser is with you all the way to support through all stages of the project to help navigate best practices, find information, and proceed with confidence,” writes ZEIC.
The Strata Energy Adviser program aims to craft decarbonization plans for 260 condo buildings in the province by 2027.
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