Nova Scotia Municipal Electric Utility Community Solar Gardens

in progress

The project consists of constructing three (3) new solar farms (solar gardens) in the towns of Antigonish, Berwick and Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. The towns are three of five communities in Nova Scotia that own and operate their Municipal Electric Utility (MEU). The towns strive to be the first net-zero emissions communities in Canada powered by 100% renewable energy. Collectively, the towns own a municipal clean energy corporation, the Alternative Resource Energy Authority (AREA). AREA is proposing to build three community solar photovoltaic gardens to forward the net-zero emission objective. The towns of Antigonish, Berwick and Mahone Bay will own and operate the project assets installed in their respective towns. The project includes constructing three (3) new solar farms, one in each of the towns, and collectively 8.8 MW in capacity of solar PV which will produce approximately 10GWh of clean, on-peak energy within the towns’ distribution zones. The location breakdown by solar system installation is 2.1MW in the town of Antigonish, 4.8MW in the town of Berwick, and 1.9MW in the town of Mahone Bay. The project will produce energy to power 1,000 homes annually and represents 7.0% of the MEU’s total electrical energy consumption. The project will benefit the community by affordably increasing and diversifying the use of renewable energy in the towns and the Province of Nova Scotia, while providing all ratepayers with equitable access to renewable energy regardless of their housing situation (ex. own versus rent) or access to capital to install a traditional rooftop solar system. After construction of the solar gardens, the towns will produce more than 50% of their electricity needs from municipally owned clean energy sources including wind, solar and hydroelectricity. Antigonish System Size & Productivity: 2.1 MW, 2365 MWh Berwick System Size & Productivity: 4.8 MW, 5030 MWh Mahone Bay System Size & Productivity: 1.9 MW, 2216 MWh