City residents can hear about how an Edmonton homeowner went net-zero using solar power next week.
The Solar Energy Society of Alberta is hosting a free panel discussion next Wednesday on living with solar power.
Alberta’s solar power generation grew by about 85 per cent in the last year and recently topped five megawatts, said Rob Harlan, executive director of the society. Almost all that power is coming from rooftop arrays.
“It’s a very fast growing industry.”
Wednesday’s talk will feature four residential solar power system owners that will talk about how and why they built their systems, Harlan said.
Two of them are farmer John Maude, who has a 700-acre grain farm with a $33 a month utility bill due to his use of solar power, and homeowner Emanuel Blosser, who made his 1960s-era home net-zero in terms of greenhouse gas emissions using geothermal heat and solar power.
“It’s given him enough extra (electricity) that he’s going to buy an electric Smart-car,” Harlan said.
Blosser said he built his 48-panel rooftop array earlier this year for about $53,000, having installed geothermal heating about six years ago.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to do it for years,” he says, and a recent inheritance gave him his chance.
The system was definitely expensive, but since it saves him about $2,200 a year on electricity, Blosser said he’s getting roughly a 3.5 per cent return on his investment.
“That’s about what mortgages go for, and people think that’s a good investment.”
He also gets more cash back as the price of electricity goes up, he added.
The talk is this Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. in Room 5-142 of MacEwan University. Visit solaralberta.ca for details.
