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Let the sun shine down

It’s official. The new Edwin Parr Composite School will be powering their building with solar energy after receiving some last-minute funding from the Alberta government. According to a Dec.
The new Edwin Parr School was approved for provincial funding to install solar panels.
The new Edwin Parr School was approved for provincial funding to install solar panels.

It’s official. The new Edwin Parr Composite School will be powering their building with solar energy after receiving some last-minute funding from the Alberta government.

According to a Dec. 30 press release from Aspen View Public Schools, the division has officially received approval from Alberta Education Minister David Eggen to immediately add solar technology to the school construction project.

“This is an exciting announcement, as it means the new EPC will be a showcase for solar energy potential in rural Alberta,” said Aspen View Public Schools board chair Dennis MacNeil in the press release. “This underscores our confidence that the new EPC will be a flagship school within the province for many years to come.”

The announcement comes as no surprise to Aspen View, which received an email from Eggen in early December saying he had “approved the jurisdiction’s request to add solar technology to the school project.”

The email was sent to Aspen View superintendent Mark Francis and members of Athabasca Regional Renewable Energy Association (ARREA).

“It sounds very positive,” Francis said after receiving the first email. “I was quite happy that those email messages have come out, but we don’t know the details of that.”

The Aspen View school board has been pushing for solar panels since Oct. 26 when the Alberta government announced that solar energy to be featured in new school building projects.

The government selected 36 school projects that have not gone to tender, which were eligible for a grant worth $250,00 to $750,000. The new EPC school project – which had already gone to tender – was not on the list.

To help push the effort, the Aspen View school board and ARREA wrote letters of support to the government, which they submitted in late November.

According to the press release, Eggen had indicated that the solar energy grant agreement will be amended once the installation costs have been determined, not to exceed $750,000.

The release added that part of the solar technology initiative will be tracking data on its performance in a school setting, reporting annual cost savings and initiative into school programming.

Aspen View’s communications officer Ross Hunter said they will need to add to the school’s current infrastructure to support the addition of solar panels, noting that there would be some extra steel put in place to support the weight capacity, but it would not be significant change to the project.

He added panels would probably be installed on the south-facing wall of the new school’s gymnasium.

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