Solar Thermal Housing Development: Drake Landing

On Monday Clean Technica featured an introduction to solar thermal energy. So it was good to see that an entire housing subdivision has been built in Calgary, Canada, using solar thermal energy for 90% of its space heating needs. Drake Landing Solar Community starts with structures that are 30% more efficient than standard, so the baseline energy needs are already lower. The community uses a borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) system which stores large quantities of solar heat in summer for use in Calgary’s cold winter. The BTES is actually a large underground heat exchanger. Each home is also equipped with its own solar thermal water heater.

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