The ground was broken this morning on a new Alternate Energy Lab at Red Deer College, which is all part of RDC's Alternative Energy Initiative. 

The new lab will educate students on green and renewable energy sources like wind and solar, as well as merging those ideas into current programs.

The plan is for students to be ready when these new technologies become standard in the job market, says Vice President of College Service Jim Brinkhurst.

“Our starting point will be to integrate with our excising curriculum, so that students who are taking plumbing, or electrical, or other programs like that, will have this integrated into their program, so when they go out to industry, they will know how to install, operate and maintain these systems.”

This initiative was made possible because of the Government of Canada’s Post-Secondary Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) grant, with matching investment by RDC. 

President and CEO Joel Ward, says thanks to the energy savings, the building will pay for itself in only a few short years.  

“It’s a 4 year pay-back period for us, up to a million dollars a year in savings. So when it was presented to me, I thought that makes huge sense for us, because after the 4th year it’s paid for itself, and every year after that is a million dollars we don’t have to spend on heat and power, that we can spend on new initiatives for programs and for students, so it was a very easy decision for us to make.”   

In addition to the lab, the Alternative Energy Initiative includes generating alternative energy on main campus through solar panels and a combined heat and power unit, and also continuing RDC’s ongoing energy conservation strategy with the conversion of all exterior lighting to LED lighting.

The three components of the RDC Alternative Energy Initiative will save over 9 thousand megawatt hours per year, saving the campus an estimated 67% on electricity usage.

This is the equivalent of powering thirteen hundred average Alberta homes, or removing eleven hundred cars off the road annually. 

Construction began on the new lab immediately after the ground breaking ceremony, and is expected to be completed in April of 2018.

(Vice President of College Services Jim Brinkhurst addresses the crowd at the ground breaking ceremony.)