In 2018 and 2019, the British Columbia Ministry of Citizens Services asked for input to its planning process for replacing the central heating plant that supplies heating and cooling to the BC Legislature and other government buildings in Victoria, British Columbia. Specifically, the Province was interested in options that would minimize greenhouse gas emissions, and would also be cost-effective and reliable. As a sub-consultant to Avalon Mechanical Consultants, Farallon worked with Avalon to:
- Propose environmental, social, and financial evaluation criteria for use in a Multi Criteria Analysis to compare alternatives for replacing the services provided by the central heating plant.
- Provide information about the environmental, social, and financial costs and benefits of electricity, Renewable Natural Gas, biodiesel, and biomass as alternatives to fossil fuels, and evaluating the long-term security of supply of these alternatives.
- Estimate the Levelized Cost of Energy and the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of each alternative.
- Evaluate the quantity, quality, security of supply, and price of locally-available wood residuals (biomass).
- Identify pollution control technologies that would be required to reduce particulate emissions from biomass boilers to levels comparable to emissions from natural gas boilers.
- Compare the costs and benefits of stand-alone heating systems in each building as an alternative to replacing the existing district energy system.
- Compare the costs and benefits of a larger district energy system that could also serve community buildings in the vicinity of the Legislature.