New Dawn Enterprises and the Vershuren Centre: An energy efficient Affordable Housing Community in Cape Breton

New Dawn Enterprises Limited (est. 1976) is a not-for-profit, volunteer-based social enterprise that works in various areas including housing, home care, immigration settlement and meals on wheels. Their portfolio consists of 215 residential units, of which 27 are Supportive Housing for Individuals with Mental Illness (SHIMI). Their portfolio also includes five commercial buildings. With a target of net-zero energy and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, the project will undertake ambitious energy-saving building retrofits for 20 homes, as well as install a single 800 kW ground-mounted solar PV system (“solar garden”, 1776 panels) for the Pine Tree Park community. The homes are located on a former Department of National Defense Property acquired by New Dawn and remediated to provide more affordable housing in Cape Breton. The retrofits include installation of high efficiency heating/cooling systems, high efficiency hot water systems, efficient heat recovery ventilation (HRV) systems, high efficiency windows, insulation upgrades, and air-sealing. Energy models predict 50% + energy savings from the retrofits alone. The solar garden component, while adding some cost to the project, may produce enough electricity to cover the annual electricity needs of the 20 homes, as well as additional homes, buildings and streetlights outside of the FCM funding proposal scope. Innovative aspects: Saving minimum 50% energy on a single house (without solar PV) is ambitious on its own; undertaking such savings on a large portfolio (20+) of single-family homes as part of a large project is ambitious and pioneering. In addition, the large utility-scale solar PV installation could be seen as innovative if it is one of the first of such scale in the province. Replicability: · Lessons learned may inform municipalities undertaking similar energy saving retrofits. For example, adding heat recovery ventilators (HRVs) and heat pumps to 20+ homes in a single project is not a common undertaking. Familiarity at the installer level should help with the adoption of air-source heat pumps and HRVs throughout Nova Scotia. · Local trades will learn how to better undertake these retrofits, gaining a better understanding regarding how well various products function (e.g. the selected HRV and heat pump models) in the local climate and building archetypes. Affordability · According to the applicant, the current cost of energy consumption is $90,000 by the Pine Tree’s 28 residences ($3,200 per year per residence). The applicant claims that this will be eliminated due to the energy retrofits and solar PV system installation. However, it can be expected that residences will pay a fee to be connected to Nova Scotia’s electricity grid, which will be relied upon when there is insufficient sunlight (overnight and on cloudy days). · 100% of the 28 residences are rented below the 2020 CHMC median market rent. (Project description from original funding application)