Town of Wilkie - Community Centre and Ice Plant - Solar Power Upgrade

completed

The proposed project will upgrade the Wilkie Community Centre and Ice Plant’s power supply by attaching a total of 500 solar panels and associated equipment to the rooftop to serve a portion of the building’s electricity needs with clean and high quality power. The significant quantifiable components of the proposed project include: - Represent good value for the money: municipal operating cost savings (economic resiliency), much of the money is spent on local labour, a showcase clean energy project for the community - Contribute to community objectives: Direct economic benefits of lower building utility bills 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 - Community’s ability to financially support project: the project will reduce electrical bills and has a defined payback period, solar power is typically a low risk and stable output asset. Approximate project outputs that will be generated: - Ten local short-term jobs during project construction in 2021 - 2,360 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.