A new $69 million dollar solar farm is taking shape in Summerside, a little city on Prince Edward Island in Canada – population about 15,000 people. The solar farm is reportedly covering 30 hectares, and, by the end of this year, featuring more than 65,000 solar panels. The project is called Sunbank, and the city is banking on it moving them one step closer to energy self-sufficiency, as Nancy Russell reports in this news piece for CBC News.
“Around 21-megawatts of total energy when it’s all said and done, and then we’ll be balancing that off with around five tractor trailers of batteries,” said Summerside’s Director of Economic Development, Mike Thususka. “So once the energy is generated, we’re able to store it, and then use it in the grid.”
The city’s director of municipal services said the solar farm builds on the success of the city’s wind farm, and the development of a smart grid that allowed them to store that energy for when the wind was not blowing.
“One of the first municipal-built wind farms in Canada, one of the first, at Credit Union Place, smart storage systems in Canada,” said Greg Gaudet. “Again here, in Sunbank, is a utility-scale storage and solar system, on the utility grids to help it be more secure, reliable and economical.”
Source: CBC News. Full story here
Related: Sunbank
Photo: Courtesy and credit Shane Hennessey/CBC
