Solar farm (photo courtesy of the Town of Sexsmith)

By Shane Clausing

sexsmith solar farm

Sexsmith solar farm seeing tremendous success after a year of operation

Jan 12, 2022 | 12:34 PM

It has been just over a year since the Sexsmith Solar Farm opened and a new report finds it was a successful first year.

A report presented to local officials earlier this week found the 706.86 KW (kilowatt) DC solar power system was able to produce 817,449 KWHs (kilowatt-hours) of electricity, as well as reduce GHG (greenhouse gasses) by 466 tonnes of CO2E (carbon dioxide equivalent) in the first year of operation.

The facility was first put into use on November 1, 2020, and its purpose is to power buildings owned by the town.

Sexsmith Mayor Kate Potter tells EverythingGP council is happy with how the first year of the project has turned out.

“We were excited to see that it exceeded all of our expectations, both financially and environmentally,’ said Potter. “We were anxious to see the results, but very pleased to see the impact we were having both within our community and financially.”

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The report also found the Town of Sexsmith was able to net a positive cash flow of just over $20,500 after lease payments.

Potter says they were able to make some money because of the amount of daylight the area received over the summer.

“We have lots of daylight hours, especially in the summer. In the winter we have fewer, but we still produce a significant amount of solar energy during that time. We collect that and sell that back to the grid basically. It’s a pretty significant contribution.”

Potter adds with the success of the solar plant after the first year, they hope it will help provide power to town-owned buildings for years to come.

“It is an investment that is worth wild and you can see return,” she stated.

“We were hoping we would be net-zero and coming back into the positives after one year only just shows us that this is the type of thing, we can continue to invest in and that there is a possibility in sustainable energy.”

She mentioned this project is another example of the town’s commitment to sustainability.