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City of Kelowna receives award for Solar Energy Project
City receives award as it embraces solar energy
By Ron Seymour
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Kelowna may be the fifth darkest Canadian city in winter, but it‘s just been named B.C.‘s Solar Community of the Year.
The city was praised for its enthusiastic embrace of solar-powered devices, including parking meters, pedestrian lights, and a retrofit of the heating system at the Athans Pool.
“It‘s very exciting for us to win this award,” Mayor Sharon Shepherd said Saturday.
“Solar power is just in its infancy, but our community is really committed to trying to be a leader in this alternative form of energy,” she said.
The honour was bestowed on Kelowna by the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association and the SolarBC at the Solar Summit on Friday in Vancouver.
Last September, Kelowna was named one of six SolarBC communities and was asked by SolarBC to take a leadership role in developing the market for solar hot water, and raise awareness of solar power generally.
The City of Kelowna is spending $150,000 to install solar-powered water heating devices this year at the Athans Pool at the Kelowna Family Y in Rutland, council heard.
It‘s expected the system will save about $34,500 annually in heating costs, so utility services manager Don Degen says it should pay for itself in four or five years.
Other projects that harness the power of the sun include the installation of 100 solar powered pedestrian lights on paths and around civic buildings, 51 solar-powered crosswalks, and
22 solar-powered parking meters downtown.
The city will sponsor a public meeting on solar power in May. “We‘re expecting about 300 people to attend,” Degen said. “The idea is to develop a public process to get the solar issue moving.”
Kelowna is the third brightest city in Canada from May to September, receiving more sunshine than any other community except for Portage la Prairie, Man., and Kamloops, according to Environment Canada.
But of 100 ranked cities, Kelowna is the fifth darkest through December, January and February, with many dim days due to inversions that trap cloud in the Valley bottom.
However, a new generation of high-efficiency, solar-powered devices don‘t require direct sunlight to operate.
“They‘re good to 35 below, and they operate on ultraviolet light, not sunshine, so it wouldn‘t matter if it was always cloudy,” Justin Powell of Precise Park Link said in March 2006 when the solar-powered parking meters were installed in downtown Kelowna.
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