Sunny side up Alberta business installs solar panels to its facilities

Sunny side up

Alberta business installs solar panels to be more environmentally conscious and see savings on energy use

By Shayna Wiwierski

If your company could save money on your energy bill every month and produce less carbon emissions, would you make the switch? That was the question that Airtech Heating & Air Conditioning Ltd. asked themselves before converting their power over to solar.

The Lethbridge-based company, located at 451 39 Street N., installed solar panels on their building in August 2019 in order to produce less carbon and see more of a return on their energy use. Dwayne Huber, president of Airtech, says that they had been considering the switch for a few years but were unsure of how well it would work, the cost savings, and what they would pay for power.

“When we first looked at it, the numbers didn’t seem to make it an attractive investment, but as we talked

In order to produce less carbon and see more of a return on their energy use, Airtech Heating & Air Conditioning Ltd. installed 392 solar panels for a 150 kW system, the equivalent of their annual electrical use.

to other companies who have gone solar and gathered more information, it made more sense to revisit it,” says Huber, adding that they considered it more seriously in January 2019 and had the system active by August of that year. “We also spoke with another company in town that has solar and I asked a simple question, ‘would you do it again?’. His answer was ‘Absolutely!’. So, that got us more interested.”

After approximately five months, Airtech could already see the financial benefits in switching to solar.

As a result, Airtech covered their roof with 392 solar panels for a 150 kW system, the equivalent of their annual electrical use.

Solar energy – capturing the sun’s rays to generate electricity from solar photovoltaic (PV) panels - is widely known to provide a return on investment for businesses, while also reducing their environmental footprint. Since the sun is a renewable resource, it is known to produce energy in a clean, quiet and consistent manner over a number of years.

Huber mentions that with low interest rates, they were able to finance the project at roughly the savings they were generating, making the cost neutral. As well, he says that Revenue Canada adds to the incentive by accelerating the tax savings to help reduce risk and speed up the return of the PV panels after they are installed.

After approximately five months, Huber says that they had already seen financial benefits by switching to solar.

The electrical provider that Airtech uses is Get Energy, which allows them to switch rates any month. Seven months of the year they are on the higher rate when they are producing more solar than they are consuming. Five months a year they are on the lower rate when an inverse happens, where they are consuming more than they can produce. For example, in the middle of summer, when they are producing more than they would be consuming, Airtech actually sells power back to the utility grid.

“Our power consumption is pretty level and we have data that shows what our solar production is,” says Huber. “So we know that from October to February we don’t produce enough power. Those months we stay on the lower rate, and then from March to September we switch to a higher rate since we are selling more power to the grid than we are consuming.”

Huber says that the PV panels, which were purchased and installed by Solar Optix Energy Services in Lethbridge, are supposed to last about 25 years. At that time, they are still expecting to generate 80 to 90 per cent of their initial rating. As a result, over that period of time they are paying about four cents over its lifetime per kW hour. He also adds that although he has seen a return on investment in switching to solar, smaller buildings may not get the same results so quickly since it goes by cost per panel.

“When you factor the installation and everything in, you still have to tie it into the electrical system. So, whether you are tying it in for one panel or 400 panels, that cost is the same,” says Huber, adding that if other companies are looking into switching to solar, they should try to get the best information possible since there are a lot of opinions and misinformation out there. “If it’s a bigger scale or project, it makes it more beneficial.”

Although they have definitely seen a positive outcome to their energy costs, installing the PV system has also provided a way for Airtech to practice what they preach. Not only will their power rates not go up for the next 25 years, but they will also not be producing greenhouse gas emissions either.

“It’s another way that Airtech stands out from its competitors,” says Huber. “There’s a lot of talk about being environmentally conscious and doing your part, but you can’t stand on the sidelines and wait for everyone else to move. We needed to be bold and lead by action rather than wait on everyone else to act on it. That’s just the right thing to do.”

Originally published in the 2020 issue of DIRT magazine, the official publication of the Lethbridge Construction Association.