Impact's Solar Install
Our knowledge in the solar industry has grown quite a lot over the years. In fact, we completed our very first solar job back in 2011. Today, with 9 years of experience and over 1 megawatt of solar power installs under our belt, we have a sunny outlook on the industry and on Impact’s role within it.
With our solar installation services, we have also provided solar power for lighting, signage, cameras, and even well site installations - vital to those that have limited access to power for emergency shutdowns or communications.
We have created great partnerships with solar contractors, such as Solarcor, where we look after the electrical install and they look after the sizing and panel install.
One of our larger projects – and one of our recent most notable – was for the town Biggar where we installed a 34KW system on the town hall and 54KW system on the hockey arena. These projects were executed under Solarcor. Another project of note, was an installation we did in 2013 for the controversial GTH property by the Regina bypass. This was a very ambitious project for our small team at the time, but we were able to get the job done.
Make Hay, While the Sun Shines
We have always been interested in installing solar power for our own headquarters in Rosetown. We’re here for the long-haul and so it only made sense to put into practice our solar skills and install our own power grid on our home turf.
Thanks, in particular, to the federal governments’ Climate Action Incentive Fund (CAIF) in 2019. This funding helped give us the boost to pull the trigger; no time like the present! And so we began the process of submitting our applications to the net metering program and the CAIF program and quickly received our approval.
COVID-Pause
We planned to start in the spring of 2020, but when spring came, so did COVID-19. Due to this uncertainty, we waited it out, but life goes on, pandemic or no pandemic, and we decided to go ahead with the project in August of 2020, and boy, are we happy that we did.
Together, with our distributor partners at Eecol Electric, we built a system that was not only cost-effective but met the needs of our power consumption. Our plan included a tight timeline thanks, in part, to the net metering deadline, and would include a roof mount project.
We recognized the project would be challenging, yet with Dean Derksen as the foreman and Tyler Gilchrist as the project manager, we also knew we’d get the job done. We ended up having to make a game-time decision to change the planned roof mount to a ground mount, but met the challenge head-on when the net metering deadline was extended halfway through the project.
The Build Out
The construction of our solar system included a ground mount racking system; we went with the Schletter PV Max mounting system which was supported off ten-foot helical piles. We designed the system with five inverters, complete with DATA Manager 2.0 where we can visually see production from any internet browser.
We are pleased to say that at 68KW, this system allows for better serviceability on the ground and increasing production efficiency. We know that a ground-mounted project ended up being the best decision for our headquarters and we extend our thanks to the amazing support we received from Eecol Electric who also delivered on time despite the changes mentioned above.
It is with great thanks and help from both the government program and our partners at Eecol Electric that we are forecasting our system to be paid off in about 6 years, with the offset of our electricity bills.
Go With the Best
You can’t harness the sun, but you can harness its power with a qualified solar panel installation through Impact Energy Services. Want to know more? Speak to our team today.