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2024 marks Blatchford Renewable Energy’s fifth year of operating in Blatchford. In honour of this milestone, here are five quick facts you might not know about the system that’s heating and cooling this community’s buildings.

Blatchford Renewable Energy operates a District Energy Sharing System (DESS) – a centralized system where thermal energy is distributed from a central location to multiple buildings in a neighbourhood.

Homeowners don’t need a gas furnace or air conditioner – that’s because the system heats AND cools Blatchford’s homes. Bonus: it also heats the water.

It’s a modular and flexible system – it’s being constructed in stages to match the pace of development in the neighbourhood and is able to incorporate the latest innovations in renewable energy.

This first stage of the system uses a geoexchange field – the field harnesses shallow geothermal energy through 570 boreholes (each 150 metres deep) located beneath the community’s stormwater pond.

It’s award-winning! In 2023, the system won two international awards. Blatchford itself won two Best New Community awards from the Canadian Homebuilders Association (regionally and nationally).

Take a walk through this growing community. You’ll discover its street names, pedestrian-only paths, family-friendly parks and other features reflect Edmonton’s legacy of aviation innovators and barrier-breakers. See photos of the seven historical nods listed below.

Entrance feature – “Arrival Gate”. Created as a pedestrian gateway to the community rather than an entrance designed for vehicles, its design incorporates structural supports as a nod to the struts used in biplanes (an early type of aircraft).

Littlewood Park. Named after pilot Margaret Littlewood, who flew and taught flying out of Edmonton’s Blatchford Field. Her impact on aviation includes training WWII pilots and bush pilots who helped explore the north, as well as airline crews.

Former airport control tower. Plans are underway to renovate this distinctive landmark into a welcoming community space.

Recycled/reused runway. Runway materials were crushed on site to be used for future roads. Some of the larger materials were repurposed in the base of Blatchford’s benches.
12-30 Runway. One of the airport’s two main runways,12-30 was named for how it aligned with magnetic north (‘12-30’ is shorthand for the compass point as an aircraft approaches an airfield – 120 degrees from the northwest, 300 from the southeast). Shifts in the Earth’s magnetic field cause magnetic north to change. A centrepiece shows how a compass would’ve aligned with magnetic north in 1942 when the runway was built. It also shows magnetic north in 2013, when the site was closed.

Alpha Boulevard. Aircraft used Taxiway Alpha to access runways, terminals and hangars. Today its namesake features fully separated multi-use paths lined with trees on both sides.

Takeoff. This art piece celebrates the vision needed for humans to achieve flight.

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