Solar panels are allowing the school board to install new equipment and offset its hydro costs.
In 2015, the panels were installed at Timiskaming District Secondary School. Since then, it has generated $135,313 for District School Board Ontario North East.
Of that, $59,264 has been used to buy and install water bottle filling stations at secondary and elementary schools, with the balance offsetting the board’s hydro costs.
Pearl Fong-West, superintendent of business/finance, said the board received a grant to install a solar panel system at Timmins Centennial back around 2009 when funding for the new school came through.
“We ran into many issues as the result of getting onto the grid in Timmins so we had to switch our plans and we moved the grid to TDSS in Timiskaming Shores,” she said.
The panels were put into commission in April 2015.
From April 27 to Aug. 31, 2015, the project generated $14,381.13 (34,662 KW) for the board.
From Sept. 1, 2015 to Aug. 31, 2016, $52,129.99 (95,127 KW) was generated, with $54,710.89 (99,837 KW) being produced from Sept. 1, 2016 to Aug. 31, 2017. Since Sept. 1, 2017, it’s brought in $14,091.45 (25,714 KW).
Because of a change in rates, the panels are bringing in less money than anticipated.
Fong-West said that when the board first entered into the program the rate was 80.2 cents per kilowatt, and now it’s about 54 cents.
“We’re not going to get the payback quite as quickly as we had anticipated even though 12 years did seem to be a long time, but we are getting the funding and we are using it toward our operations,” she said.
At TDSS, she said there have been some repairs to broken panels due to balls thrown on the roof, but said the “maintenance hasn’t been a heavy amount.”
