Sustainable energy research help Jasper

There was a friendly new face in Jasper last week.

Rod McIntosh was in town to take part in the Jasper Community Sustainability Plan’s (JCSP) goal-setting workshops and make contacts with the town and Parks Canada. Born and raised in Calgary, McIntosh is a University of Calgary Master’s student majoring in Sustainable Energy Development, who wants to help Jasper in its quest to become a sustainable community.

According to the 26-year-old, the Sustainable Energy Development program links together a broad range of topics and faculties including engineering, law, business management and environmental design. “It’s combining all these faculties with a focus on energy and sustainability,” he said.

While the young man’s previous studies have taken him all the way to Nicaragua, for the moment all roads lead to Jasper as he completes an “assessment of the energy consumption, the supply and demand of Jasper.”

With a personal desire to study community energy planning and a place that was physically accessible, McIntosh chose Jasper as a the location for his final project. 

“I want to profile how Jasper is using its energy – where’s it all going? The greatest draws of energy are definitely heat and electricity. I want to detail how houses, businesses, especially some of the big draws like hotels are using air conditioning in the summer for guests or heating in the winter.”

From his interaction with the community to date, the academic believes Jasper has “a lot of good initiatives” and “forward thinking environmental initiatives, conservation efforts and all that kind of stuff.”

For these reasons, the university student hopes his studies will also to contribute to the educational role he believes Jasper can play, suggesting it’s perfect for the mountain town. “[It’s] the education part of sustainability, because people come to Jasper for the natural beauty and sustainability initiatives compliment or at least show respect to the natural beauty of Jasper by not taking too much or by not polluting too much, doing as little as possible to the environment.”

Despite his praise and belief that Jasper is “eager to get towards more sustainable energy”, McIntosh also notes that energy is still “kind of in the back of people’s minds” with other issues, such as housing and tourism being more important to Jasperites.

“I think [energy] is one of those things that people might not think about until it becomes a problem. Electricity just comes to whatever you want to power. We don’t ever really think about if there’s enough or how it gets to our doors.”

To date, McIntosh has been collecting a range of “paper data” including background information and energy audits from the solar PVC sites at the Maligne Lake Wardens’ Hut and the Jasper Activity Centre. 

For the next stage of the assessment the student will develop criteria so that he can “cover a broad range” of Jasper by surveying residents and businesses making sure to encompass “different housing styles [and] different kinds of businesses.”

Looking forward, the Calgarian also wants to envision long-term futures for energy in Jasper.

“Thirty to 50 years down the road if capacity is going to be double what it is now, what are some of the ways that Jasper can supply that demand? Or, make conservation efforts,” he said.

“I’m going to be doing an assessment on what resources are available to Jasper that are not yet developed, such as renewable energies: solar or wind or geo-thermal energies that can be applied to the town.”

Importantly, the interdisciplinary nature of the course means the academic will investigate the feasibility and environmental impacts of using these resources as well. “It’s great if a technology works, but how expensive will it be? Jasper, being a national park, there is all these huge environmental concerns like land use.”

While McIntosh is not financially involved with the municipality, he has been offered resources by the town to assist him with his studies and has Verne Balding, director of Corporate and Legislative Services, as his “political link to the businesses and community of Jasper”. 

His visit recently was to take part in the goal-setting workshops on Feb. 11 and 12, and depending on personal financial restrictions, hopes he can take part in the March JCSP workshops.

McIntosh is completing his Master’s after a long history of previous academia, first completing a diploma in engineering at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and then coming to the University of Calgary to do a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish.

His interest in Latin American culture and sustainable energies led him from Alberta to New Brunswick and then on to Nicaragua for nine months, as he completed an Appropriate Technology Internship through the Canadian International Development Agency where he learned from rural communities innovative initiatives with renewable energies.

The next JCSP workshops are March 25 and 26.