Oil-Rich Alberta Embraces Solar Power

EDMONTON, Alberta, June 30, 2006 (ENS) - Solar electric panels will be installed on 20 municipal buildings across the oil-producing province of Alberta, city and federal government officials announced on Thursday.

Climate Change Central's Alberta Solar Municipal Showcase has been granted up to C$350,000 (US$315,445) in funding from Canada's Green Municipal Fund to support the two year project, officials announced from the steps of Edmonton City Hall.

"These installations will demonstrate to Alberta homeowners, businesses and municipal governments the technical viability of grid-connected solar PV systems, which are well established elsewhere in the world," said Edmonton Councillor Karen Leibovici, representing the National Board of Directors of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Edmonton Councillor Karen Leibovici (Photo courtesy Office of the Council Member)

The C$550 million Green Municipal Fund, supplied by the federal government, is managed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. It supports partnerships and leveraging of public and private sector funding to reach higher standards of air, water and soil quality, and improve climate protection.

"Through the Green Municipal Fund, the new government of Canada is demonstrating its commitment to clean land, clean air, clean water and clean energy," said Laurie Hawn, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre. He represented Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources Canada, in the newly elected Conservative government.

"Municipal governments and their partners are vital as we work together to develop a strategy for renewable and emission free energy," Hawn said. "Getting these technologies into our communities will help Canadians reduce their energy costs."

In the past, renewable energy has not been needed or wanted in oil-rich Alberta, where the conventional oil sector has been a driver of the provincial economy for more than 50 years.

In addition to conventional oil production, Alberta has vast oil sands, or tar sands, expected to double production to two million barrels of oil a day by 2012. Conventional oil is extracted by drilling wells into the ground whereas tar sand deposits are mined using strip mining techniques.

The Canadian oil sands have been in commercial production since the original Great Canadian Oil Sands, now Suncor, mine began operation in 1967. A second mine, operated by the Syncrude consortium, began operation in 1978 and is the biggest mine of any type in the world. The third mine in the Athabasca Oil Sands, the Albian Sands consortium of Shell Canada, Chevron Corporation and Western Oil Sands Inc. began operation in 2003.

There are now several dozen companies planning nearly 100 oil sands mines and in-situ projects in Canada, totaling nearly $100 billion in capital investment.

But now Albertans are switching on their solar power. Medicine Hat, the sunniest city in Canada, is the first to activate one of the 20 installations in the Alberta Solar Municipal Showcase.

At noon on June 23, Shelley Ross of the Medicine Hat Public Library pulled a breaker to activate the solar PV system on the library roof. The library is now using all available solar electricity before it draws electricity from the grid generated by burning oil and gas.

Contractor's crew installs solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of the Medicine Hat Public Library. (Photo courtesy Energy Solutions Alberta)

"This project will help us better understand the long-term potential of this technology and help educate the public about alternatives to a sole reliance on nonrenewable sources for our energy needs," Medicine Hat Mayor Garth Vallely said at the funding announcement in Edmonton on Thursday.

Medicine Hat’s City Council has set aside C$1 million to explore alternative and renewable energy projects. The first of these projects, the Alberta Solar Municipal Showcase is seen as a chance to showcase the potential for grid-connected solar PV as part of the city’s renewable energy portfolio.

"The most important part of this project is the opportunity to provide training and public education about solar PV systems in each participating municipality," said Simon Knight, acting president and CEO of Climate Change Central, which is helping coordinate the project.

The project will feature the installation of the one-kilowatt solar PV systems on municipal buildings in the major cities of Edmonton and Calgary, as well as in smaller communities such as Medicine Hat, Pincher Creek, Jasper, Drayton Valley, Black Diamond, Westlock, Strathcona County and Starland County.

"This project gives municipal governments the opportunity to influence by example," said Knight, "and to showcase a globally accepted renewable energy technology."