The City of New Westminster is hosting our second FREE Public Information Session on Thursday, October 19th, from 7 PM to 8:30 PM to take a deeper dive into the development of an Urban Solar Garden.
Local residents, businesses and non-profit organizations are invited to attend and talk about:
PROJECT VISION – The City’s vision is to develop an Urban Solar Garden as an accessible, affordable alternative to rooftop solar, allowing interested subscribers in New Westminster long term access to solar energy: “Made in New West, for New West”. The Urban Solar Garden will enable you to generate your own renewable energy without having to install and maintain the system on your own. When completed, the Urban Solar Garden will be the first municipally-led community solar photovoltaic (PV) initiative in Metro Vancouver.
HOW IT WORKS – The 50 kW solar PV array would be installed on the rooftop of a City-owned building or above a surface parking lot to produce renewable, local, and zero-carbon energy. Local residents businesses and non-profit organizations would have the opportunity to buy a portion of solar energy generated by the PV array (for up to 25 years). Each subscriber would receive a credit on their annual utility bill equivalent to their share of electricity produced by the Urban Solar Garden.
LOCATION – The City is evaluating potential sites for the 50 kW array (~ 200 panels) that would feed into the local electricity grid and become part of the capital assets owned by the City’s Electric Utility.
CANADIAN SOLAR INDUSTRY UPDATE – Our October 19th event will feature a presentation from a solar industry expert that will talk about recent developments in PV technology and examples of community solar projects in BC.
OPPORTUNITY TO SUBSCRIBE – Interested residents, business and non-profit organizations will also have the opportunity at this event to presubscribe and reserve up to ten panels in the future Urban Solar Garden. City staff will also provide indicative per-panel pricing, typical per-panel solar production and investment payback details.
See this information sheet to learn more about the Urban Solar Garden.
Anyone with an interest in solar power is encouraged to attend our October19th public event in Sapperton, hosted at the Health Sciences Association of BC, 2nd floor Training Centre.
Seating Capacity is Limited
Those interested in attending must RSVP prior to the event.
Questions? Please call 604-515-3818 or email Ryan Coleman at rcoleman@newwestcity.ca
Event Details
Date/Time: Thursday, October 19th– 7PM to 8:30PM (Doors open at 6:30PM)
Location: Health Sciences Association (Main Office)
180 East Columbia Street, New Westminster
Training Centre (2nd Floor) (See Detailed Event Map)
Health Sciences Association
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