Harvest solar energy to keep the ice in

Harvesting solar energy to run the refrigeration plant is one way of reducing our energy costs. There are already a variety of large and small installations across Canada and in other places in the world.

Two solar examples:

In 2013 a 10 kW solar installation was installed on the roof of the Oilfields Regional Arena, Black Diamond’s local indoor hockey rink. In addition to benefiting the environment, all of the savings achieved as a result of the power being generated from this project are reinvested in the town’s sustainability efforts. The money goes into a Green Fund that is used to fund future renewable energy projects.

Another example is the Iqaluit’s Arctic Winter Games Arena Complex. With little moisture in the atmosphere, which means less sunshine is being filtered out a lot of sun energy comes through. (Surprisingly more sun energy comes through than would happen in Southern California.) Solar panels are effective in the cold, when the sun is shining, not so much on dark winter days, but with nearly 20 hours of sunshine a day in Iqaluit, there’s more opportunity to generate power than in southern Canada.

100% of the facilities’ annual energy consumption is generated through the solar panels.