Just last Tuesday council approved the addition of a solar array on the building to generate power.
“We did some calculations and found in the project budget on the energy side that we can add some solar to the building,” said CAO Ross Rawlusyk.
`“We just had a council motion on Tuesday on what will be the second largest building mount solar project in Alberta.”
The solar array will allow the county to provide 15 kilowatts of power through solar generation.
“It will be substantial,” said Rawlusyk.
He adds the placement of the solar panels will even help to create efficiencies. They are planning to shelter the roof mount HVAC units.
“If you can use solar to shelter radiation from your roof mount units, your units are as much as 15 per cent more efficient in the summer time too, because you are dealing with the less direct heat on the heating and cooling units,” said Rawlusyk.
He explains the funding for the renovation comes from two different grant funds. The solar project comes on the energy conservation side. The county is also upgrading the insulation on the existing building. He said the walls of the old office were very inefficient.
“The windows were actually better than the walls and the roof is even worse. They are just open beams and there is no insulation between the ceiling and the great outdoors,” he said.
The retrofit also includes triple pane energy efficient windows, and adding small electric on demand hot water systems, as opposed to a traditional hot water system.
The county hopes to balance the energy efficiency of the existing building with the new construction, which will about double the working space.
“We’ve been working with ATCO and the electric contractor and they are saying the new combined building will use less energy than the old one,” said Rawlusyk.
The county has been on the forefront of energy conservation. It has three solar arrays powering its water stations. He said there are many counties that have looked at solar power, but very few have adopted the technology.
“The City of Medicine Hat is doing a lot, and the Town of Okotoks is doing some on their public buildings. We get a lot of calls, and we get a lot of tire kickers but not a whole lot of development yet,” he said, adding there is funding out there for such projects, especially for municipalities.
The renovation for the county has a cost in the range of $1.3 million and is expected to be completed this year.