Federal funding has helped a historic cottage resort north of Peterborough, Ont., to add solar panels to its buildings.
On Wednesday, business and community supporters gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the installation of 110 solar panels on the historic Lake Edge Cottages, located on the Otonabee River, which flows into Katchewanooka Lake just north of Peterborough. Originally a fishing camp in the 1940s, the site has been a holiday destination for generations.
Last year, the federal government provided $85,000 to help with the costs of updating the resort’s energy system. The funding was via the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).
Paulette Prentice, director general at FedDev Ontario was in attendance to represent the achievement and present remarks on behalf on minister Filomena Tassi.
“The Government of Canada is pleased to support projects like Lake Edge Cottage’s solar panel initiative that will attract visitors while improving their energy system and promoting sustainable tourism,” stated Tassi. “Congratulations on today’s ribbon-cutting event, celebrating the hard work and collaboration between local partners in greening this family-run cottage resort.”
Resort owners Steve, Anne and Jackob Wildfong approached Peterborough-based energy contractor Generation Solar to design and install the panels. Steve says the move is one step to improved sustainability. The family purchased the business in 2019 and say the federal support covers about half of the project.
“For us, it’s about looking at a pool of energy we can then use,” he said. “Right now, everything you plug in at the resort is offset by the solar energy that we are producing using the array. We can look at how we can offset greenhouse gas emissions. In the emissions report we received from Green Economy Peterborough, one of our big challenges identified is using propane gas.
“Cottages at Lake Edge are older, they’re not well insulated, we do use storm windows on them but still, there’s a lot of heat loss. What if we switch to electric to offset the amount of times gas goes on?”
J.P. Pawliw, co-owner of Generation Solar, says small businesses such as Lake Edge are a “great target for clean energy technologies.”
“Businesses with high input costs towards energy are great candidates for clean energy systems which will offset their input costs or stabilize them,” he said. “They (Lake Edges) are doing a tremendous job at demonstrating leadership not only to other small businesses but to all their clients and their stakeholders.”
Lake Edge is a member of Peterborough GreenUP’s “Green Economy Peterborough,” a program which helps members to measure and reduce its environmental impact.
“Green Economy Peterborough is a membership program that presently has 22 vibrant, engaged and committed Green Economy Leaders from a diverse sectors,” said GreenUp executive director Tegan Moss. “Today we are proud to celebrate one leader who has demonstrated significant willingness to invest in becoming the type of business leader that we need to act on climate change.”
The Wildfongs said among the next steps for the resort are promoting the EV charging station, exploring the purchase of an electric truck for their family, and seeing how to generate enough solar energy, not to be impacted by power outages.
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