Sunny days are large payoffs for the Saint-Laurent borough.

Forty-five new photo voltaic panels have been added to the rooftop of the principle workplace constructing as a brand new solution to generate vitality and assist save on utility bills.

The modules had been put in final fall as a method to assist warmth, cool and supply electrical energy to the constructing. The photo voltaic vitality system is there to complement however not change hydroelectric energy offered by Hydro-Québec.

“We’re type of eager to have the ability to use the warmth of the solar to have the ability to reply to our heating and cooling wants,” Alan DeSousa, the Saint-Laurent borough mayor, instructed World Information.

He says it’s too early to find out if there have been any value financial savings in utility bills with the brand new modules; an entire assessment of the photo voltaic system can be performed on the finish of the yr.

DeSousa provides that the panels will change into a everlasting fixture and so they’re the newest initiative within the borough’s efforts to scale back greenhouse gasoline emissions and scale back its carbon footprint.

“We needed to diversify our supply of electrical energy and never have all of our eggs in a single basket,” he mentioned.

DeSousa says there are plans to increase the photo voltaic vitality system to different elements of the borough and he says a few non-public corporations within the industrial park are planning so as to add panels to their buildings as properly.

Simons has already added photo voltaic panels to not less than two of its department shops, in Quebec Metropolis and Edmonton, because the division retailer strives to generate as a lot vitality because it consumes.

The federal authorities gives subsidies of as much as $5,000 in its Canada Greener Properties Grant program for householders prepared to put in photo voltaic panels on their properties.

Quebec doesn’t supply an identical program however Hydro-Québec has opened two photo voltaic farms able to producing sufficient vitality to energy virtually 1,000 properties.

“Solar energy is a superb concept in Quebec. It’s fairly complementary to hydroelectricity that we’ve got,” Patrick Bonin, the local weather and vitality campaigner at Greenpeace Canada, mentioned.

The proprietor of 1 photo voltaic panel set up firm in Quebec says industrial and residential gross sales have dramatically elevated for photo voltaic modules this yr.

“We have now seen exponential development,” Bartek Wlodarczak, the founding father of Quebec Photo voltaic Options, instructed World Information.

DeSousa is simply hoping extra sunny days forward means more cash within the financial institution for his borough.