Homebuilders more eager to go green
By Collin Gallant on September 7, 2018.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant Medicine Hat homebuilders are warming to solar energy as a selling feature in new builds, according to officials with the city’s HatSmart energy conservation rebate program. In an update of the $210,000 program to the city’s utility and energy committee on Thursday, program manager Jaret Dickie said funds to lower the cost of meeting federal new home standards have been well received by builders. That money has been mostly divvied up already, while rebates on the cost of building solar arrays are once again exhausted. The total of $175,000 set aside represents much larger investment on property improvements, according to members of the committee. “It tells us that people are buying into renewable energy for homes and businesses,” said Coun. Phil Turnbull, the committee’s chair. “We’re seeing a fast-growing track for solar energy.” Bolstering that is up to $15,000 maximum rebate from combining grants from the city and Energy Efficiency Alberta, which disperses carbon levy funds. Of note, said Dickie, is that two homes built by construction firms ‘on spec’ this year — meaning without custom requirements from the purchaser — included solar panel arrays as a selling feature, and both have already sold. Kent Pearson is the president of the Canadian Homebuilders Association in Medicine Hat and his company, Advanced Energy Advisors, conducts energy-use audits on buildings. This year, the pace of development led to partial rebates, covering features in existing plans and “quick tweaks,” according to Pearson, but few applications that captured the full maximum rebate. “Everyone was very excited when the programs were announced in January and a lot of (plans for) double-pane windows became triple-panes,” he said, citing the provincial program rebate on windows. “But it takes a year or 18 months to plan a whole house,” he said, predicting that continuing the program next year or beyond would produce larger applications. Dickie, too, predicted the number of finalized applications to come in later in the year. Administrators in July moved some money from slow moving rebate programs to more popular ones. Specifically, $50,000 was moved from a rebate on work to better seal the exterior of homes from heat loss and $5,000 from high-efficiency clothes dryer rebates, meant to compliment a provincial rebate on certain washing machines. The $55,000 was redirected to solar panel arrays, bringing the total to $135,000, all of which has been spoken for. Program manager Jaret Dickie said solar rebates remain popular and can be matched up to $5,000 maximum with a provincial rebate that offers up to $10,000. To date, about $2,500 had been paid out to those who purchased dryers, leaving $4,500 available for purchases this fall. Also, about half of the $28,000 for exterior home air-sealing projects is still available. 18
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