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Solar power shines in Calgary
June 07, 2010
Dina O’Meara, Calgary Herald
Solar power experts in Alberta foresee sunny days ahead for the industry as costs fall and interest in the technology grows.
Witness Drake Landing, the 52-home community just outside Okotoks, which supplies 80 per cent of homes’ space heating from solar—a world record.
Or check out any road construction site in the city and the solar-powered signs flashing messages to passing drivers.
Home owners increasingly are incorporating solar water heaters and other technologies, as have campers and hikers, if Canadian Tire flyers promoting all sizes of solar panels are any indication.
Alberta has been the centre of Canada’s solar industry for decades, used by the oilpatch to power and control field devices and pipelines in remote or dispersed sites.
“The interesting thing about solar is its scalability,” said Elizabeth Mc-Donald, president of the Canadian Solar Industries Association. “It’s so applicable in so many ways. Companies see that solar can be used for different applications in different sizes, a flexibility other renewable energy sources lack.”
