Foothills County has completed an energy efficiency project at the Scott Seaman Sports Rink.

The project recovers waste heat from the ice plant and uses it to heat water and the space in the building.

It's expected the technology will significantly reduce natural gas consumption.

They've also installed Variable Frequency Drives and a Building Automation System to make sure the right amount of energy is being used at given times of the day.

The project is part of Foothills County's Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emission reduction initiative. 

It's estimated the project will save about 39,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and almost 2,900 gigajoules of natural gas, saving about $28,000 yearly.

The project was made possible through a grant from the Recreation Energy Conservation program of the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre which picked up a significant portion of the cost of the project.