St. Albert’s electric buses will be powered by the sun as early as next week now that the city’s biggest solar array has been built in Campbell Park. SkyFire Energy technicians were putting the finishing touches this week on the $500,000 solar array now atop the Campbell Park bus depot (a.k.a. the Dez Liggett Transit Facility). The project is on schedule and should be online by about the middle of this week, said SkyFire general manager Trevor DeHaan, who lives in St. Albert and is supervising the work. Once operational, the 301 kilowatt system will potentially generate enough electricity to run 44 homes and prevent some 189 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year, said David Vonesch, SkyFire’s chief operating officer. That will cover about a third of the bus depot’s electricity use even once you account for that used by the city’s new electric buses, said city environment manager Leah Kongsrude. “That’s really the cool part,” she said. “Our buses are going to run on sunshine.” While you can’t see the panels from the ground, the city plans to put up a sign at the depot indicating their presence, Kongsrude said. A 2016 energy audit of 11 city-owned buildings found that buildings accounted for about 56 per cent of St. Albert’s corporate emissions, Kongsrude noted. The report made a number of recommendations on how the city could save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at these sites. “One of the low hanging fruits was putting solar panels on some of our buildings,” she said, as it could reduce the city’s energy costs and emissions from coal-fired power plants. The bus depot system consists of 753 solar modules each rated at 400 watts, and covers about 60 per cent of the depot’s roof, Vonesch said. The array will be the biggest in St. Albert once operational, dwarfing the 54 kW, 216-module system atop Alberco Construction in the Riel Business Park, confirmed Alberco president Ron Simonsmeier. As is typical for rooftop systems, the modules are held down by concrete weights rather than bolts and engineered to withstand serious winds, DeHaan said. The weights eliminate the need to drill bolt-holes in the roof and will let the city rearrange the modules if needed. DeHaan said he was proud that this project would help power the city’s three electric buses, which he and his family often saw drive by their home. “I pointed out to my daughter that pretty soon these are going to run on solar,” he said. “Now she’s going around the neighbourhood telling everyone!”
