PIP is excited to launch a new series where we will introduce one Western Poultry Conference speaker each month. Meet the speaker, learn about their presentation, follow up on resources and come fully prepared to learn, ask questions and fully enjoy your WPC experience! The 2025 Western Poultry Conference will take place on February 24, 2025 from 9 am – 4:30 pm at the Red Deer Resort and Casino, 3310 50 Ave, Red Deer, AB. For more details and to register, click here.
Western Poultry Conference 2025 – Meet The Speaker!
Lowy Gunnewiek: President, L2TEC Consulting
Presentation: Integrating Solar Thermal Air Heating into Poultry Barn Operations
Lowy Gunnewiek is a professional engineer with deep agricultural roots who is passionate about decarbonizing energy systems in order to minimize environmental impacts. He also understands that decarbonized energy systems must be economically competitive with how we do things today in order to be adopted and embraced. SolarWall, a product developed and proven over 30 years ago, is a technology that achieves this.
Can you give a brief ‘elevator pitch’ summary of your presentation?
“Leveraging solar energy to reduce operating costs and improve production efficiency while also reducing the carbon footprint of egg and meat production is an attractive opportunity for poultry producers. SolarWall’s air heating technology enables producers to realize this opportunity. The presentation will provide background on how the technology works, the history of its development, its high thermal energy production capability and how this reduces the carbon intensity of production. The presentation will also speak to the flexibility of how the SolarWall can be integrated into existing and new barns, its simplicity of operation, the low cost of operation, and with zero maintenance requirements. Examples will be provided to illustrate how the SolarWall can be incorporated into a poultry operation and how it provides an attractive return on investment.”
Why is this an important topic for Alberta poultry producers?
“It is well understood that the thermal energy needs for poultry barns are significant, including critical systems like heating and cooling of ventilation air, or processes like manure drying. SolarWall’s innovative technology provides poultry producers with the opportunity to incorporate solar air heating into new and existing poultry barns, bringing benefits such as improved air quality, reduced operating costs, and a lower carbon footprint.”
Can you recommend any resources that we can share with our producers ahead of time to help them learn about your product/innovations?
Dawn has an MMUS from Northwestern University and worked from 2017 - 2021 as the U of A Heritage Chicken Program Coordinator. With extensive experience as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor, Dawn is the scribe for the PIP team. Duties include transcribing minutes, creating action lists, organizing team ideas and projects, editing, writing articles, and interviewing subjects for the People of Poultry series in the PIP newsletter. Dawn also assists in PIP tech transfer initiatives.
