Nelson's 'community solar garden' starts leasing panels

Nelson could soon become the first city in Canada to launch a so-called community solar garden to provide residents with both clean energy and credit towards their power bill.

On Monday, the B.C. community gave the go-ahead to allow the solar garden project to start leasing panels.

The centralized solar panel farm, which will be about the size of a soccer field, gives homeowners and businesses access to solar energy without having to install and maintain panels on their own roof.

Panels are purchased on a 25-year lease, and will cost a maximum of $923 each, although the City of Nelson's EcoSave program coordinator Carmen Proctor says her group is applying for a grant to bring the costs down.

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Depending on how much energy the solar panels produce, it could take roughly 12 to 15 years for residents to recoup the costs of their investment, but once the space is paid off, people would then slowly start to save money, said Proctor.

"But I think it's about more than that. It's to support a community, local, renewable energy project, to help increase the awareness about solar, and people want to support renewable energy. They want to progress that and put Nelson on the map for its forward thinking," Proctor told Radio West host Rebecca Zandbergen.

The estimated electrical output of the entire project would be enough to power about three homes, Proctor estimated

Solar panels went on sale on Nov. 17, and 75 per cent of panels must be sold within four weeks for the project to go ahead.

But interest is high and a list of interested purchasers contained 350 names.

Proctor said that the project may grow depending on how the panel sales go.

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