When building new, a whole array of renewable energy solutions are available. Trying to navigate through the sea of sustainable technology is almost overwhelming. But what about the stock of old buildings – just like the millions of commercial buildings located throughout our North American Cities - that could benefit from 'green' technology? Until now very little could be done to cost-effectively retrofit an old building outside of switching out a few light bulbs and doing boiler upgrades. Until today building owners had very limited options when it came to retrofits aimed at increasing energy efficiency - Fēnix Energy’s technology is about to change all this.
FĒNIX ENERGY, formerly Geocon Energy Solutions Ltd., signaled the official launch of their renewable energy company by announcing its new name.
“The new name - Fēnix Energy - better reflects our positioning and represents the next stage in our development - as well as our official launch into the market”, says co-founder, President and CEO Edward Smith, P.Eng, LEED® AP.
“When we started the company, just over a year ago, we saw there was an opportunity to transform the way geothermal heating and cooling was approached. Although geo-exchange is a proven technology that has been around for decades, there were barriers and limitations to the traditional approach that made it less appealing, particularly in high density cities, despite it being arguably the best sustainable climate control solution for the built environment,” Edward Smith goes on to say.
The company founders set out to knock down the barriers to a geo-exchange installation by leveraging their collective mechanical engineering, sustainable design, energy and construction expertise. The result - patent-pending technology and an evolutionary approach making Fēnix Energy the first and only firm in the world that can retrofit a high-rise with geo-exchange within the footprint of the building.
The Fēnix methodology now makes geo-exchange more easily accessible to large existing commercial buildings, located in dense urban environments. According to the Pike Research report “Energy Efficiency Retrofits for Commercial and Public Buildings”, there are nearly 4 million buildings in the US that could potentially benefit from green technology.
“We believe in making a difference and in providing solutions that deliver value for our clients and the environment, so the decision to tackle one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions, our buildings, was simply a logical one,” states co-founder Ross King, Senior VP and COO.
Outpacing even the transportation sector, buildings consume nearly 40 % of the World’s energy and account for 50 % of all greenhouse gases. It’s the critical heating and cooling function of a building that is primarily responsible for its energy consumption.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) refers to geo-exchange as the “most energy efficient, environmentally clean, and cost-effective space conditioning system available.”
"We knew that the way to make an impact was to have geo-exchange accessible to the structures most in need – the existing built environment. By tapping into the earth’s free renewable energy the older buildings are able to significantly reduce their energy consumption, lower energy costs and increase their asset value,” says co-founder and Senior VP of Engineering, Adrian Ryan, B.Sc Eng, LEED® AP.
Old buildings aren’t the only structures to benefit from the Fēnix Energy geo-exchange system. For new buildings under construction, installing a Fēnix system means that there is no impact to the critical path of the project construction resulting in considerable time and cost savings.
With several key projects underway, including the Surrey Civic Centre in BC, Fēnix Energy’s green evolution is set to pay big dividends for both clients and the environment.