Amherst home to Nova Scotia’s first community solar garden
It’s easy to associate our neighbours across the provincial border with wind energy. As you cross into Nova Scotia you can’t miss the slowly spinning blades of about 15 turbines operated by Capstone Infrastructure (and if Capstone’s proposed expansion passes muster with the Nova Scotia government, there could be another dozen on the horizon.)
But head over into the Amherst industrial park and you’ll see another impressive, though much smaller renewable energy sight: about 4500 solar panels installed at a solar farm collecting energy on behalf of about 130 Nova Scotia Power customers, all paying a monthly fee to help run the pilot community solar program.
“Community solar is a way for us to offer solar energy to all Nova Scotians,” says Shawn Connell, the director of customer solutions at Nova Scotia Power, who owns the project. “It doesn’t matter if you live in an apartment building, if you live in a condo, if your house can’t support solar panels, or you may have a roof that’s not quite situated in the right way to optimize the sun,” says Connell. “This allows you to get access to solar in increments that you’re able to manage.”
The Amherst community solar garden represents just a small percentage of the generating power of its wind turbine neighbours, but the 10-acre lot will still produce enough energy “to power roughly 240 homes, or if you look at it from an electric vehicle perspective, 700 electric vehicles,” says Connell.… Continue