Photo archive and construction timelines
Drake Landing kept two photo sets: dated construction galleries from 2005 to 2007 plus one winter 2010 set, and a later themed gallery. The pictures are offline, so this archive keeps their captions as written timelines.
Construction timelines by year
- 2005: show homes, the Energy Centre, the tanks, the first boreholes and the first collectors, from about 329 photos.
- 2006: garage rows, collectors and completed rows of homes, from about 55 photos.
- 2007: finished arrays and the 13 September opening, from 33 photos.
- 2010: a single winter set of 21 photos with minimal captions.
Read in order, they show a neighbourhood going from a cleared field to a working solar community in about two and a half years.
The themed gallery
A later gallery sorted pictures by subject: aerial views (17 photos), the underground heat store (3), the Energy Centre (7), roof solar electric panels (2), solar domestic hot water (3) and the solar thermal arrays (5). Captions mention the park over the storage field in summer 2013 and fall 2017, two 120 cubic metre short-term tanks, a 117 kW modulating condensing boiler and the end of the live data feed on 30 June 2019. The systems pictured are explained on borehole storage and Energy Centre.
What is and is not here
The original galleries, about 438 construction photos and 37 themed ones, are no longer online. These pages describe what the captions said and nothing more. A January 2010 gallery in particular has captions that only read "Winter 2010", so no claim is made about what it showed. No images are reproduced on this site.
Understanding what you read
If a caption mentions a term you do not know, such as header pipe or U-tube, the how it works page puts the parts in context, and solar collection covers the roof arrays.
Quick answers
Can I still see the Drake Landing photos?
Not on this site. The original galleries are offline, and only captions survive, which are used to rebuild written timelines.
What years do the construction galleries cover?
2005, 2006 and 2007, with a single winter set from January 2010. Each year has its own timeline page.