Solar farm, Source: WikiMedia Commons: user OhWeh

Solar energy efficiency has skyrocketed in the past few years, as has the decline in its price; whereas in 2002 the International Energy Agency forecasted that global solar capacity would be around 10GW in 2020, the current capacity in 2017 is well over 200GW, and is expected to double in the next few years. In 2015 alone, over 50 GW worth of solar panels were shipped. Even with these optimistic numbers, the question still remains - is going solar worth it yet?

Earlier this year, the City of St. Albert approved a project that would see the City's biggest public solar array built on the bus depot in Campbell Business Park. The City committed $500,000.00 to build the solar array, and once operational, it will generate about 250 kWh of electricity (about 20% of the facility's power use). Despite the large cost of the array, a grant from the Province of Alberta will cover 20% of the cost, while the remaining 80% will eventually be recovered through energy savings over the panels' lifetime of 25 years - this goes to show that going solar today can indeed be worth it.

The Government of Alberta recently launched its "Residential and Commercial Solar Program" ( https://www.efficiencyalberta.ca/solar), which provides a prescriptive "per-watt" rebate based on the total capacity of the installed system ($/W). For commercial businesses, this is a rebate of $0.75/watt, with the maximum payable rebate being $500,000.00 or 25% of eligible system costs (for a detailed list of these costs, please visit: http://solar.efficiencyalberta.ca/program-background/rebates-available).

With this in mind, determining the long-term economics of having solar power can be assessed by using the "Levelized Cost of Electricity," or "LCOE." This is usually calculated when getting a quote from a Solar Energy Contractor who will be able to provide an estimate of how much energy the system will generate per year, which can then be compared with estimated energy prices over time to estimate the value of the energy being produced - the cost of the system is then divided by this energy production estimate to determine the system's value. In most cases - especially with the new solar rebate program - the end result is that over the 25-30 year lifetime of a solar panel array, the system will pay for itself and end up generating additional money in the form of energy savings. You can contact a solar contractor today to find out how much your business would save in the long run by going solar.