Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

By Shane Clausing

Sexsmith solar power

Sexsmith Solar Site Project nearing completion

Aug 20, 2020 | 5:00 AM

The Town of Sexsmith is nearing completion on its new Solar Site Project.

The $150,000 project was approved by town council in the fall of last year and is being built at a decommissioned dumpsite that has been in reclamation mode for the last 20 years.

Once construction’s completed, most of the town’s streetlights and buildings will be powered through solar energy from the project.

The town is one of the first municipalities in the area to have a majority of their buildings and streetlights operated through solar power.

Mayor for the Town of Sexsmith Kate Potter says the town got the idea from other small cities and towns throughout the province, like Leduc and Brooks.

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“When we saw (other towns and cities projects) we thought we have an old dumpsite that’s been reclaimed, but it’s limited use.”

“One of the things we (council) thought about was the opportunity to turn it into a solar generation plant. So, we started exploring it and we were able to get a grant from the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre provincially, to also help with the funding of the project.”

Construction on the project began back in the spring and is expected to be completed before the end of September.

Grande Prairie based company Empower Energy Solar is installing the solar panels at the site.

Potter says the investment will save the town a decent amount of money and leave a legacy for years to come.

“Right from year one, we are almost projecting to pay for our investment and give us back the money that we would anticipate from the electricity cost.”

“We will collect more than enough to get our investment back and we’ll be in the positive by the second year of the project.”

With the town moving to solar power, Potter says that despite the short days in the winter, there will be enough power to keep buildings going.

“We are partnered with Enmax and they do a test of how much daylight hours you have, so that you can know whether a project like this is actually worthwhile for your investment.”

“While we have shorter days in the winter, a couple things work in our favour. We have tons of sunlight hours, and because we have very long summer days, they (Enmax) sort of allow us to store up the energy in the summer and sell it back to the grid, so then we can have a credit that we end up using in the winter when we produce a lot less.”

Potter adds that the solar panels that are being installed at the plant have a warranty of 25 to 30 years. It will also still produce 80 per cent of the energy that it does after day one after 25 years.

“That’s a huge benefit to get that long out of a panel,” said Potter.

With the project nearing completion in September, Potter says she’s happy to see that the town has taken on such an ambitious project.

“It’s not often that a smaller municipality can take on a project like this. That’s why we were very grateful for getting the grant. Without the grant, it would’ve been difficult for us to do it and the return on our investment would’ve taken much longer.”

“At the end of the day, we are all trying to do to our part to make us more sustainable long term.”