PENHOLD – The town is considering solar panels for the Penhold Regional Multiplex.
A presentation by CBI Solar was made to council in November at a workshop meeting.
“We did have a presentation from a group that was looking into solar panels on the multiplex," said Mike Yargeau, Penhold mayor. "They are moving forward with getting prices on that (project) to find out how much it would cost us and what our rate of return would be.”
He said the Red Deer company approached the town in the fall to discuss solar panels on the multiplex.
While calls to CBI Solar for additional information were not immediately returned, Yargeau did add there was also the possibility that the province could help out with funding.
"There’s some provincial grant monies available,” he said. “It’s something we’re looking at to see if there’s a possibility for us to save some money over the long term by switching some (of the panels) to solar,” he added.
Yargeau said energy costs for the multiplex have not been any higher than in previous years but the town may want to take advantage of those government monies available to municipalities.
“There’s a lot of good opportunities with government grants for solar projects. So it might work for us, it might not,” he said.
“We’re exploring that as a possibility. We haven’t approved the final project yet, but we’re looking into the possibility of it.”
Yargeau noted further discussions on the idea will be held in the new year.
“(The company) will come back with some exact costs,” said Yargeau, noting they will also include details of what the project may look like. “They gave us just a rough outline and we asked them for more information.”
