NRCan EcoEnergy
Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan’s) Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE) offers the ecoEnergy Retrofit Incentive for Buildings. This program targets owners of small and medium-sized buildings in the commercial and institutional sectors that often lack the financial and technical resources to make energy improvements. New energy efficiency projects could receive up to $10 per GJ of estimated energy savings, or 25 per cent of eligible project costs, of $50,000 per project. When applying, an energy audit of the building is required.
Enbridge HPNC
The Enbridge High-performance New Construction (HPNC) program rewards builders and project decision-makers with incentives for offsetting the cost of energy-efficiency measures, achieving lower long-term operating costs, greatly improved marketability, and enhanced occupant comfort. By designing and building new buildings with more energy-efficient equipment for lighting, space cooling, and ventilation, buildings will cost less to operate, have lower environmental impacts, and be a comfortable place in which to live, work, or play.
Ontario IDF
The Innovation Demonstration Fund (IDF) is a discretionary, non-entitlement funding program administered by the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation. The program focuses on emerging technologies, with a preference toward environmental, alternative energy, bio-products, hydrogen, and other globally significant technologies.
The purpose of the IDF is to support any pilot demonstrations that will then lead to the commercialization of processes and/or products in Ontario that are globally competitive and innovative sustainable technologies.
SEAD street lighting
Introduced last year, the Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) procurement program is first of its kind to support the purchase of energy-efficient LED street lighting in British Columbia. The program helps local governments and other public sector purchasers in the province reduce energy consumption and save on costs.
Nearly all of British Columbia’s 360,000 street lights currently use high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps. Though HIDs are far more efficient than older incandescent lighting options, switching all street lights to LED would save the public sector purchasers approximately 105 GWh of electricity annually, which is enough to power 10,000 homes. Also, the provincial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would be reduced by 14,000 tons. LED streetlamps also offer lower maintenance costs, a longer lifespan, reduced light pollution, and better visibility for pedestrians and motorists.
Conclusion
With the dramatic proliferation of LED luminaire in full force, this solid-state lighting (SSL) technology (i.e. LEDs) will dominate general illumination going forward. That being said, there are hurdles manufacturers and those specifying LED luminaires must overcome. Specifiers must conduct due diligence on products, particularly because since 2006 there have been 600 new lighting manufacturers in the LED industry.
Designers and specifiers need to play an active role in the development of standards and code requirements to ensure quality lighting is maintained. Beyond important lighting metrics such as efficacy, lumen output, and luminous distribution, designers and specifiers are needed to define the essential attributes of lighting as it becomes integrated with building automation, energy management, and security systems.
Jeff Gatzow is national sales and marketing manager of lighting with Optec LED Lighting. He has worked in the LED luminaire industry for over 10 years, and prior to this he worked in the illuminated signage/brand identity industry. Gatzow can be reached by e-mail at jgatzow@optec.com.
