The largest rooftop solar array in Manitoba was unveiled Monday at the Selkirk Recreation Complex.
The solar array is a 200 kilowatt rooftop solar panel system and will offset energy costs for the City of Selkirk while also reducing its carbon footprint.
“The Selkirk Recreation Complex is an ideal location for solar panel installation because of the large amount of available roof space and high energy usage in maintaining an ice rink and large community centre,” said Justin Phillips, CEO and co-founder of Sycamore Energy, a renewable energy design and installation firm, in a news release.
The solar panels will cost the city $437,000, after a $200,000 grant from Manitoba Hydro. It’s estimated the solar panels will reduce the city’s energy costs by 16 per cent.
Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson says residents value becoming better environmental citizens and this is just one step in becoming a greener city.
“By installing solar panels we’ll be more kind to the environment, which I’m a huge fan of, and we’ll be saving taxpayers’ dollars at the same time,” said Johannson in a release.
“It's important to us because it's important to our citizens, our citizens help us create our corporate strategic plan and so they said it was important to them that we be good environmental stewards,” said Duane Nicol, CAO with the city of Selkirk.
The panels are mounted on the south-facing roof of the recreation complex to allow maximum exposure to the sun.
The move to solar energy is a trend Sycamore says is rapidly growing in popularity.
"Installing solar is not unique in general, it's new in Manitoba but it's certainly not new to the world. Over the last couple of years we've seen a huge influx in solar installations across the province. North of 650 systems that range from a small residential system to a system this size have been installed across the province," said Phillips.
The instillation of the solar panels at the Selkirk Recreation complex is part of the Manitoba Hydro rebate program. Over the course of the program, Manitoba Hydro received over 1,200 applications from homeowners, businesses and farmers to install solar technology.
