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Take the spotlight off solar

Squamish may be just a little too focused on sunshine lately.
Endicott
Editor Christine Endicott

Squamish may be just a little too focused on sunshine lately.

Last week, district council unanimously supported a motion to proceed with the application to make Squamish a solar city by November 2018 – although it stopped short of hiring staff to expedite the paperwork.

While the movement to explore alternative and renewable energies is positive, it’s odd to pay much attention to solar energy technology in a place where typically there is precipitation 192 days of the year. In fact, Natural Resources Canada’s photovoltaic (PV) potential map indicates that the B.C. coastline is one of the least sunny places in the nation, much darker than places like southern Saskatchewan. Squamish’s annual PV potential is only 965 kWh/kW, compared with 1361 for Regina.

It seems logical that Squamish should focus its energy on promoting other renewable and alternative energies, such as geothermal and perhaps tidal. The proof is already on the rooftops here, where there is a lack of solar panels; even the most forward-thinking homeowners have already determined that photovoltaic technology is currently too expensive for the meagre energy it generates.

That’s really what Councillor Susan Chapelle seemed to be saying at last week’s meeting. The voice of reason on a council that adopted the motion anyway, her statements were later publicly attacked by people promoting solar. But if you read carefully, she was on their side in terms of checking into alternative energies that work in Squamish, and she voted with council to pursue the solar city application by 2018.

The negative talk is casting a shadow over the positive work that is happening around Squamish, notably in green building practices, as highlighted in the new edition of Discover Squamish magazine. Many homeowners and institutions are exploring alternative energy such as geothermal. An obsession with solar could direct attention away from other opportunities to explore.

Residents in Squamish are keenly interested in renewable energy and conservation; that’s clear from the high interest in environmental building practices and the concern about use of fracked gas for the planned liquefied natural gas plant for Howe Sound.

Solar remains expensive technology with questionable payback, especially in a rainy place like Squamish. It’s time to direct our eyes away from solar – and instead shine light on the other alternative energies that make sense in Squamish.

– Editor Christine Endicott

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