Energy Reporting and Planning
The City of Belleville tracks the amount of electricity and natural gas we use in city-owned buildings and how much it costs. We use this information to guide our efforts to use energy more efficiently and reduce it where we can. This results in energy savings over time and helps to control energy costs. Whenever possible, we apply for funding to help offset the costs of energy projects.
We also use this data to report our greenhouse gas emissions to the provincial government under Ontario Regulation 507/18. Our annual reports detail how much energy is used, the greenhouse gas emissions produced and the energy intensity of city-owned buildings.
The work detailed above is captured in our Energy Conservation and Demand Management (ECDM) Plan – a five-year plan developed in response to Ontario Regulation 507/18 and designed to guide the City of Belleville towards a more energy-efficient future.
Energy Projects & Awards
Over the last five years, we have received upwards of $430,000 in incentives and our completed projects will result in energy savings of over 2.8 million kWh annually (258,000 kWh for facilities and 2.6 million kWh for street lighting). That's enough electricity to power 246 homes for a full year.
Highlighted in the list below are some notable projects undertaken in the last five years:
- In partnership with Veridian (now Elexicon Energy), we installed Combined Heat and Power units at the Quinte Sport & Wellness Centre that take waste heat (i.e. steam) from gas-powered turbines that operate on-site and use it to heat the swimming pools.
- When renovating the City's Operations Centre at 31 Wallbridge Cres., we installed lighting controls and automation to reduce daily energy use by building occupants.
- We replaced old boilers with new models to reduce natural gas consumption at Belleville Public Library and the Gerry O'Connor Water Treatment Plant.
- In older facilities (e.g. public washrooms in City parks), we replaced traditional hand dryers with high velocity cold air units.
- When the roof was replaced at the Water Treatment Plant, we upgraded the roof insulation to R18. We look for these opportunities during all building upgrade projects.
- We brought new solar energy projects online at the Gerry O'Connor Water Treatment Plant (2 Sidney St.) and the former Neil Britton Building (195 College St. W).
We were recognized as leaders in energy conservation in 2015 and 2017 by Save on Energy and Veridian Connections (now Elexicon Energy).
Climate Change
Belleville’s climate is already changing. A local weather monitoring station shows that the average annual temperature has warmed by 1.8°C over the past 100 years, consistent with temperature changes observed elsewhere in Canada.
According to Quinte Conservation, precipitation events also appear to be larger and more intense including more winter rain storms and extreme weather events. And we can expect more changes in the future: average annual temperature in the Quinte Region is projected to rise by approx. 2 to 3°C by 2050 if climate change is left unabated.
In response to this challenge, the City's Green Task Force recommended that Belleville City Council adopt a resolution to declare a climate emergency to drive action forward on climate change. Declarations are seen as particularly effective at the local level given that Canadian municipalities are the owners and operators of 60% of public infrastructure and are on the frontlines of both the impacts of climate change and the solutions to it. The resolution was adopted unanimously by Council in June 2021. A staff report was drafted in support of the declaration and contains the resolution in its entirety.