Tsaw’tsawa Green Hydrogen Facility
This paradigm-defining project, currently in the Schematic Design phase, will establish an Indigenous-owned Green Hydrogen Highway in BC to end fossil fuel dependence in hard-to-decarbonize use cases. The form is based on the traditional Ishken — the pit house — that is endemic to the local First Nations. The giant open-air structure screens the industrial activities within from overlook by the village above and provides a canvas for the community to express their culture and symbols. The canopy of soaring glulam beams and tensile elements offers shading and weather protection to the process equipment below, and enables Indigenous Thermodynamics to create the constant draft required to naturally ventilate the facility.
Earth bag walls filled with excavation spoil and a perimeter berm provide a cost effective enclosure at ground level as well as a safety factor for the nearby residents. The green roof interweaves with nature to preserve the ground-nesting killdeer habitat and 100% of precipitation falling on the facility is harvested in swales and stored in the new habitat pond in the SE corner of the site.
Synergies are being explored to incorporate ecological waste water treatment as the water source for the facility, a district heating loop to utilize the waste heat from the processes and earth sheltered greenhouses to anchor food security for the community.
