City hopes to become leader in solar technology

Andrea Klassen Medicine Hat News

With rooftop panels popping up around the city and new technological initiatives on the way, Medicine Hat is set to become a leader in solar technology in Western Canada.

NEWS FILE PHOTO IAN SORENSEN

In one of the latest moves towards alternative energy, solar panels are lifted onto the roof of The Ridge in Medicine Hat in 2009. The country's "Sunniest City" is set to become a leader in solar technology in Western Canada in the next few years.

"Medicine Hat's the sunniest city in Canada,” explains the city’s energy sustainability manager Russ Smith. “If the technology is going to be economic and work well, this is where it's going to happen."

But, Smith says, it’s going to take some work at the federal and provincial levels to move the city beyond its current level of solar power use.

Smith points to initiatives already in place in central Canada as one possible strategy to encourage prairie residents to embrace solar power.

In Ontario, residents using solar generating equipment are paid at least four times more for their excess power — which feeds out onto a community’s existing power grid — than those in Medicine Hat.

But while incentives may be better out east, Smith says the resources needed for solar power - that is, sunlight hours - are far better in the west and, specifically, in Medicine Hat.

The city is already trying out new solar technology at the Family Leisure Centre, where solar panels that move with the sun power the building’s wave pool.

Officials are also working to secure funding for a $9 million research project which would study solar-steam technology in northern climates.

The city’s HatSmart program for businesses, in which the city pays half the cost of a solar power project - up to $50,000 - has already led to several major installations locally.

NEWS PHOTO IAN SORENSEN Stu Moore Clothiers Ltd., located in downtown Medicine Hat has been utilizing solar panels on its roof for several years and says his electricity savings are “substantial,” and some months his utility bill is reduced by more than half.

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32 — REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA 2010 ■ Celebrating our Community

A 30-kilowatt system on the Ridge Professional Building on Second Street S.W., the largest in Western Canada, began producing power in December 2009. Greg Smith, CPO of Palliser Orthotic and Prosthetic Clinic, says he’s already seeing $50 to $70 in savings on his monthly electricity bills.

"I know in the future electrical costs are going to go up, and this controls my cost,” he says. “The life of the system is approximately 40 to 45 years, and I expect it to pay off in about seven years, and from there on it will be just savings.”

Steve Moore of Stu Moore Clothiers, installed solar panels on the roof of his downtown shop several years ago, and says his electricity savings are “substantial” and some months his utility bill is reduced by more than half.

"I'd do it again in a heartbeat," he says.

In the long term, Smith says the city also hopes to examine the economic feasibility of solar-farming, using large numbers of solar panels to produce heat and electricity.

Once the city knows what new technologies work best, and how much power it can access, Smith says it will be better able to integrate it into the existing system.

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