Town of Biggar - Arena Ice Plant Solar Power Upgrade

completed

The proposed project will upgrade the Biggar Arena’s power supply by attaching 249 solar panels and associated equipment to the rooftop to serve a portion of the buildings’ electricity needs with clean and high quality power. It is an existing municipal building. The purpose of the project is several-fold and will meet the COVID-19 Resilience Investment Stream objective by: - providing shovel-ready economic development to speed Canada’s economic recovery through a straightforward project with streamlined approvals - increasing community resilience with onsite clean power as a step towards protecting against power outages - increasing community resilience by reducing the community’s utility bills allowing the savings to be allocated to other community needs - increasing social support infrastructure by improving the community recreation facility and indirect economic benefits of local jobs during installation and follow-on projects in the community. Enhance and protect public health and/or environmental health: reduced greenhouse gases and potentially cleaner local air, much of the activity is outdoors with very low risk associated with COVID-19 transmission. Technical feasibility: rooftop solar installations as building upgrades are straightforward and can easily meet program timelines, solar powering a building exceeds building energy efficiency codes. Project sustainability: the assets typically have a 25 year or more lifespan with little maintenance requirements. Approximate project outputs that will be generated: - Ten local short-term jobs during project construction in 2021 - 1442 tonnes of greenhouse gas reductions over a 25 year conservatively estimated project lifespan - several hundred thousand dollars of utility bill savings over the project lifespan - a showcase clean energy economy project that will encourage follow-on projects in the community.