Clay District thinking of going solar

By Mo Cranker on December 4, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com
@MHNmocranker

Medicine Hat’s Historic Clay District is mulling over the possibility of adding a number of solar panels to its building with the hopes of potentially cutting electricity costs completely.

“We received money from the Community Energy Capacity Building Program to do a feasibility study and we’re going to look at that soon to see where we go next,” said Medalta executive director Aaron Nelson. “This is just the very first step.

“Now that we know that this is feasible and have a price we can look at our options and start thinking of raising money for that if its the direction we decide to go in.”

Nelson says it costs approximately $60,000 per year for electricity at Medalta — a cost he would love to eliminate completely.

“With the project we could be a net producer — meaning it could go down to $0,” he said. “That would be huge for us, eliminating that cost.

“As a not-for-profit we’re always trying to operate in the most effective ways — freeing up that money would be big for us.”

Nelson says it is also important for Medalta to be a leader on this topic.

“We’re a nationally-known site and this could be a highly-visible example of energy transition,” he said. “The idea of switching energy sources has happened in the past at the site and I think it’s important that we can be a place to talk about this.”

Nelson says the freeing up the money would help Medalta in many ways.

“The idea is to help us serve the public better,” he said. “We can just do an even better job of doing what we’re doing now.”

Nelson says there is no timeline on the project and the group is holding a discussion Saturday at 2 p.m. to get different perspectives on the potential project.

“Once phase one is done completely we’ll be able to make a decision on moving forward,” he said. “I think it could be a really good thing for Medalta and a great thing for Medicine Hat.

“It could reflect really well on the city to become leaders on solar energy.”

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