Sechelt’s new, $1.7-million operations centre will be wired for solar panels, but councillors have decided not to install them in order to keep the up-front costs of the project down.
The project is expected to go ahead this year, but the public works, parks and environment committee recommended the solar option be left out of the plan. The recommendation was endorsed by council on March 7.
The district’s consultants, PBX Engineering, have estimated the cost of installing an array of 33 solar panels on the Dusty Road building would be around $25,000 with a payback period of at least 56 years.
At the earlier committee meeting, Coun. Darnelda Siegers said she was disappointed that data about the performance of the solar panels at the Water Resource Centre were not included in the report to give a “real life example.”
Darwyn Kutney, director of engineering and operations, said staff are working to get better data on the solar installation at the WRC, but preliminary numbers show the payback time could be several decades. “The payback is quiet excessive – it’s in the 60-year period for that [WRC] installation,” he said.
The Sunshine Coast Solar Association, meanwhile, has been encouraging Sechelt to press ahead and is questioning the numbers in the PBX report. In a letter to Sechelt Mayor Bruce Milne, copied to Coast Reporter, association member and alternative energy advocate James Pawley said recently installed solar arrays at schools in Langdale, Davis Bay and Pender Harbour “were calculated to have payback times of about 14 years.”
Kutney told the committee his department is looking to keep construction costs for the operations centre as low as possible. “We were instructed to bring the cost of this building down as low as we can… We are definitely planning for the installation of solar, but not at this time because we want to keep the costs down.”
Committee chair Darren Inkster said he was also surprised at the long payback time estimated by PBX. He noted that the school projects received some money from the Community Forest Legacy Fund, and suggested the district look for similar options. “We should start looking in the future as to where we can get money outside our budget to do something that I think is sustainable and smart going forward,” he said.
Although council voted to hold off on installing solar at the operations centre for now, it also instructed district staff to bring the solar project back to the public works committee after the building is constructed.
