Noteworthy: Seems solar and sunniest city in Canada could make sense
By Bruce Penton on March 5, 2025.
The Saamis Solar Project appears to have the green light, after the Alberta Utilities Commission approved the city’s application early last month to take over ownership from DP Energy. Not surprisingly, because millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake in an energy project for which a good many people are suspicious of its value, the Medicine Hat Utility Ratepayers’ Association wants to hold council’s feet to the fire on this deal. The city, being ever transparent, is not balking at the idea of talking with the group questioning the value of the solar park, and meetings are apparently being planned. But if any city in Canada is going to build a solar park and benefit from the energy it generates, it’s Medicine Hat. Environment Canada’s statistics listing the top 10 sunniest cities in Canada have Medicine Hat as No. 1, reporting it ‘typically’ has 2,544 hours of sunshine per year, according to currentresults.com. The rest of the top 10, many of which are located in the southern Alberta ‘sun belt’, are Lethbridge, Suffield, Kindersley, Swift Current, Estevan, Calgary, Brooks, Broadview, Sask., and Weyburn. The City of Medicine Hat’s website says there are “many aspects” that go into the Saamis Solar project decision and the city is “vetting the project to determine if it will drive value for our community.” Public meetings with the MHURA is part of that vetting process. If it goes ahead, the Saamis Solar Project will be built on 1,600 acres of land owned by Viterra north of Crescent Heights that is unusable for commercial or residential development. It would be done in a number of smaller phases, with an eventual output of 325 megawatts of electricity, enough to power approximately 2,400 homes. • Thinking of taking up a new occupation or pastime in 2025? How about becoming a taxi driver or trying to become a pole vaulter? A British medical journal says taxi drivers are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s Disease. Reported in the Winnipeg Free Press, from a finding from 25 years ago (before GPS), taxi drivers were found to have a more developed hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with memory and navigational skills. Meanwhile, pole vaulters in general lived longer than the norm. • The 20-year period between the ages of 55 and 75 is a key time frame to take care of your brain health. Statistics show that if you live long enough, there is about a 40-per-cent chance of developing some form of dementia in your later years. But if you take some preventative steps between 55 and 75, you could have a good chance of staving off brain deterioration. One strategy, says the website Axios, is to train your brain. Play word games, learn a new language, take up a musical instrument. Also, stay social. The Axios report also said what’s good for your heart is good for your brain. In other words, exercise can keep your whole body healthy, including the portion between your ears. • Short snappers: Canadian Lennox Lewis is ranked the No. 1 heavyweight boxing champion of all time by writer Gareth A. Davies of Yahoo.com. The rest of the top five, in order, are Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. “I am the second greatest!” proclaimed Ali from the grave. … The Medicine Hat Musical Theatre group performs its highly entertaining The Play That Goes Wrong for three more nights – Thursday through Saturday of this week. It is uproariously funny and well performed by the local stage actors. … The New York Times says Volodymyr Zelensky was to blame for last week’s heated exchange at the White House because the Ukrainian leader should have known “the only way to engage with (Donald) Trump is to flatter him, and Zelensky should have known that.” That’s a sad commentary, or fact of life, in today’s political world. … A wise guy on Bluesky.app said that because of staffing cuts to U.S. national parks, more reports this summer of picnic baskets being stolen by bears will be reported (kids: Google Yogi Bear). … Being blessed with warm temperatures last weekend definitely means March came in like a lamb, so be careful about making travel plans toward the end of the month, when it will undoubtedly go out like a lion. Bruce Penton is a retired News editor who may be reached at brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca 11-10
Bruce has nailed it. My father was a Power Plant Engineer working at SAIT and promoting solar panels for roofs in southern Alberta. He got laughed at by fools who refused to listen. Yet people who did listen and put them on their roofs said that it was the smartest thing they ever did, especially after Klein rammed deregulation down our throats and not only did they save money they made money by selling the surplus back to the grid.