January 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 42

TOP TRENDS
Technology
The Electrification of
Parks and Recreation
One of the most far-reaching and important
trends that will affect parks
and recreation is the coming electrification
of much of what we use to conduct
our business. It will encompass
buildings, vehicle fleets, power equipment,
mowers and landscape equipment.
And the changeover from fossilfueled
power to electric power will be
far quicker than you may think.
Why will we be changing over
to electricity? Simply because it
is cheaper, more efficient, more
healthful for our communities and
workers, more environmentally
beneficial, and is possibly the singlelargest
contribution that parks and
recreation will make to reducing
our carbon outputs to the atmosphere,
thereby slowing the negative
impacts of climate change.
This is not to say that there won't
be profound challenges in switching
fossil fuels to renewable energy
sources. Only a handful of park and
recreation agencies have already
begun to strategically plan for the
changeover by assessing costs, estimating
timelines and developing
their charging infrastructure. The
good news is that the expected benefits
in efficiency, cost, climate and
health will be huge.
Two innovative examples of how
electrification is taking shape are in
Boulder, Colorado, and Seattle. In
Boulder, the city has piloted an innovative
Vehicle-to-Building (V2B)
charging station at the North Boulder
Community Recreation Center.
A bi-directional charger has been installed,
so an agency administrative
vehicle can plug into the charging
station when it is not in use for regular
daily business. Because the charger
is bi-directional, it can charge
the battery normally, but it also can
send power from the charged battery
back to the building at times of peak
demand, which occur on the hottest
and coldest days of the year. Because
power costs increase at times of peak
demand, there is a net savings from
using stored power of the battery.
This results in a savings from the
electric company on average of about
$250 per month, according to Matt
Lehrman, a policy advisor on energy
utilities for the city.
Seattle Parks and Recreation
(SPR), a national leader in sustainable
operations, is looking to convert
fossil fuels to renewable energy
sources by 2028, according to Andy
Sheffer, director of planning, development
and facilities maintenance
for SPR. " We intend to get rid of all
fossil fuel sources, " he says.
As part of this effort, SPR has
installed a microgrid system at the
Miller Community Center that utilizes
a large battery energy storage
system (BESS) to store energy from a
rooftop solar array that can feed that
power back to the facility for heating,
cooling, lighting and other electricity
needs. " An expanded microgrid
could even provide power to the
community, " says Sheffer, " and we
can make all of this carbon neutral. "
ATV Wheelchairs
The implementation of a program
to loan off-road, tracked, powered
wheelchairs to persons with disabilities
in parks is a remarkable step forward
for visitors experiencing mobility
challenges. Five state park systems
in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota,
South Dakota and Georgia, and one
national park, Sleeping Bear Dunes
National Lakeshore in Michigan,
now have loaner track chairs for public
use. As reported in the Washington
Post, Jamie McBride, a state park
and recreation area consultant for
Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources, says, " People have told us
this is life-changing. "
Digital Twin Mapping
Digital
twin
maps
are
threedimensional
(3D) models of the
actual physical environment
that
A solar microgrid installed on the roof of
Seattle Parks and Recreation's Miller Community
Center connects to a large battery
storage system that will provide power in
times of emergencies and power outages.
42 Parks & Recreation |
J ANUAR Y 2 0 2 3
| PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
PHOTO COURTESY OF SEATTLE PARKS AND RECREATION
January 2023 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2023 - Parks & Recreation
