Airdrie now has its second rooftop solar panel installation.  

After the largest municipal rooftop solar system in Canada was installed on the roof of Genesis Place in 2019, a second installation was commissioned last week on top of Airdrie's new Transit facility.

Glenn Archer, Team Leader of Capital Projects for Airdrie explains that solar power was envisioned for the Transit facility at the time of its design.  "There was consideration in the design that, in the future, we may have the opportunity to add a solar installation so the structure and the electrical service were sized accordingly and the opportunity did come in the terms of grant dollars from various levels of government to complete the installation."

The city partnered with ENMAX on the solar array project that is expected to generate 410,000 kWh of electricity in the first year, which will be used onsite.  That level of power generation is the equivalent of removing greenhouse gas emissions from 63 passenger vehicles being driven for a year.  

The array consists of 1,024 solar panels and it's projected that it will save Airdrie around $84,000 annually based on average sunlight providing an annual output of 412MWh.  That means the solar panel system will pay for itself in approximately 12 years.

"What a lot of people may not know is that these systems do generate power all year round," says Archer.  "On a sunny day in the winter, they're still generating power, and in the long term that defers the power bill.  Also, of course, since we don't have to burn fossil fuels in order to create the electricity, it also has an environmental benefit that way."

ENMAX is proud of its part in the partnership, as well as Airdrie's continued investment in renewable energy with the expansion of its solar generation portfolio at the Transit facility.  "We're proud to continue to work in partnership with the City of Airdrie as they continue to steward climate leadership within Alberta," says Acting Director of Energy Solutions at ENMAX, Mike Tearoe. 

This project was made possible through funding from the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre programs fund ($245,760), the Federal Gas Tax Fund ($100,240), and the province’s overall $14.2 million funding commitment for the City of Airdrie’s Transit Storage and Maintenance Facility under the Green Transit Incentives Program (GreenTRIP).

Archer says the city expects the solar panels at the facility to be functional for 30 years.  "Installations that they have currently which don't have as good technology as the current solar panels are running at 30 years with only a slight loss of performance."

He also explains that this likely won't be the last solar project for Airdrie.  "It's something we're looking at, staff are interested in this.  It's a good new story and it supports council's priorities.  So we're going to continue to see if it's something we can move ahead with in other places." 

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