Watch above: The Saskatchewan Environmental Society is hoping a prize from Affinity Credit Union will help get a solar power farm off the ground in Saskatoon.
SASKATOON – The Saskatchewan Environmental Society (SES) is hoping to take a prize from Affinity Credit Union, and get a solar power farm off the ground in Saskatoon.
“We’re looking to install about 400 solar panels,” said Allyson Brady, executive director of the society.
“We’re hoping that the public will really embrace renewable energy, and that’s certainly what we saw in the crowd funding campaign,” Brady told Global News.
On Friday, Affinity announced that the SES had won the $50,000 prize in the Business for Good Social Venture Challenge. The environmental society raised the most money – about $59,000 – in a crowd funding challenge sponsored by Affinity. That means they also qualified for the prize of $50,000.
Brady said the money puts them about a third of the way toward their goal.
The SES wants to create a solar power farm co-op, either in or near Saskatoon. So far they haven’t got a site chosen yet. They are hoping that people will join the solar co-op by buying one solar panel each.
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Peter Prebble, director of environmental policy for the society, says the cost will be about nine-hundred dollars. That includes a hook-up and everything else needed to get the panel into the power grid.
“We’re looking at power that will meet the need of roughly 20 to 25 homes,” said Prebble. “When people buy a share they’ll just be getting started in solar … this co-op will be really nice for anyone who’s got shade issues on their property and can’t really put up a solar system of their own, for condo owners, for renters, this will be ideal.”
Brady said ideally they’d like to get started building the solar farm in 2015, but a lot depends on how much participation the project gets from the public. Prebble said it will break new ground in a couple of ways.
“It will establish a new business model for developing renewable power in the province,” he said, “because we’re going to try to create a renewable power co op that is community controlled, run by its members. That’ll be exciting.”
The SES estimates the project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 100 tonnes per year, and there is a possibility it might qualify for a provincial program for small power producers.
However, according to Prebble, there isn’t much else to encourage solar power production.
“Ontario is really the only province that offers it right now,” he said, “and as a result solar power has taken off there in a huge way. We’ve got a better sunlight resource than Ontario does.”
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