Federal Gov’t and Municipalities Go For The Solar
This is an interesting program that is funded by the Canadian Federal Government and the Alberta Municipalities. It would appear that the intent is to encourage municipalities to gain experience in integrating Solar power into their infrastructure. The artile lists the sucesses todate, the municipalities that are still waiting to flip the switch and the proposed amount of power.
The thing that bothers me is that there is no incentive for the homeowner in the form of resources or tax breaks to make this happen. Maybe with the municipalties getting involved, maybe the expertise can some day be passed onto the general public.
Here is the story as it appeared in the Edmonton Journal.
Solar power for 4 Edmonton buildings
Provincial program aims for Albertans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Richard Warnica
Journal Staff Writer
Saturday, July 01, 2006
EDMONTON - Four Edmonton-area buildings will soon have sun power thanks to a provincewide program to put solar panels on municipal buildings.
The Alberta Solar Municipal Showcase will see small photovoltaic (pv) systems installed on municipally owned buildings in up to 20 communities.
The project is an initiative of Climate Change Central, a public-private partnership established by the Klein government in 1999 to study industry friendly solutions to global warming.
The panels installed under the program announced Thursday won’t generate much energy; each one-kilowatt pv system will provide only a small fraction of a building’s energy needs.
But that doesn’t matter, says Simon Knight, acting president and CEO of Climate Change Central.
“The point is to educate and familiarize people on the ground about solar power,” he said at a press conference outside Edmonton’s City Hall on Thursday.
The organization hopes the project will to provide municipalities with valuable experience in the pros and cons of expanding solar power.
Medicine Hat, Canada’s sunniest city, was the first to sign on to the project. A worker at the public library flipped the switch on their pv system last week.
In Edmonton, the city hopes to install the panels on the new Lois Hole Library, to be built in the west end next year.
Strathcona County, Vegreville, and St. Albert are among the other 13 municipalities tied to the project. Funding is in place for up to 20 communities to participate.
The money for each project is split between the individual municipalities and the federal government, through a fund provided to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
With 20 sites operational, Climate Change Central calculates they could save 25 tonnes in CO2 emissions each year.
Most scientists agree that CO2 and other greenhouse gasses are causing the planet to warm dangerously and unnaturally fast. Seven of Canada’s top 10 industrial producers of greenhouse gas are located in Alberta.
rwarnica@thejournal.canwest.com