The 2005 launch documents, summarised
In March 2005 the project issued English and French brochures, a press release and a backgrounder as ground was about to be broken. The files are not hosted here, so this page sums up what that package set out.
What the launch package was for
The documents were written for the public and for journalists at a single moment: Natural Resources Canada and its partners were announcing a neighbourhood of 52 homes to be heated mainly by the sun, in a country where winter is the problem solar normally cannot solve. The release headline described it as a first for North America. Ground was broken in spring 2005, and the 2005 construction timeline follows what happened next.
The idea they explained
The central claim was seasonal storage. Collectors on the garage roofs would gather heat all summer and push it into the ground through 144 boreholes, so that the soil became a very large, slowly cooling battery. In winter the heat would come back through a district loop to each house. The design aim was about 90 percent of space heating from the sun. The step-by-step version is on how it works, and the borehole storage page covers the underground part.
The people in it
The backgrounder named the partners and their jobs: Natural Resources Canada conceived the project, Sterling Homes built the houses, the Town of Okotoks supported it, and ATCO and Enerworks supplied utility and solar expertise. The partners page keeps that list up to date with what is verified.
How the claims turned out
Looking back from 2026, the targets were met and exceeded. Monitoring reported 97 percent solar heating by 2012 and 100 percent in the 2015-16 season, as set out in performance results. The community was later wound down, with decommissioning beginning in 2024.
Finding the originals
The archived copies kept the page titles but not the files. Natural Resources Canada and the Town of Okotoks are the best places to ask, and the contact page gives pointers.
Quick answers
Are the DLSC brochures available?
Not on this site. Only the titles survived in the archive, so the content is summarised here and across the explainer pages.
Was there a French brochure?
Yes. The project offered the brochure in English and French. The French copy is not hosted here either.
What was the project announced as?
A first-of-its-kind solar neighbourhood for North America: 52 homes heated through a solar collector field and seasonal underground heat storage.