Moose Jaw installs solar panels on city buildings to reduce carbon footprint

The City of Moose Jaw started the process on Friday morning of installing 730 solar panels on city buildings.

The panels will be installed on the Yara Centre, City Hall/Moose Jaw Police Service, and Mosaic Place by the end of August.

City manager Jim Puffalt said it’s an exciting moment for the city that has been looking at climate action for some time now.

“We’re just pumped that this is happening and that we’re taking leadership and doing something for our climate,” Puffalt told Global News.

The city is expecting to see a drop of $170,000 in their utility panels per year thanks to the solar panels. The panels will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 829 tonnes annually.

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“It’s important that those go hand in hand because I think sometimes people may believe that you can’t do this in a practical manner, and that’s what we’re showing people is that you can,” Puffalt added.

The project came at a cost of $1 million with funding from both the federal government ($415,120) and the provincial government ($345,899).

The city footed the rest of the $238,981, which Puffalt said will be made back within five-and-a-half years.

Moose Jaw City Council adopted a Climate Action Plan (CAP) as part of its 2022 municipal budget.

The data-driven plan set targets including a 20 per cent reduction of corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2025 and a 45 per cent reduction by 2030, and eliminating 100 per cent of water loss from all municipal buildings.

The city is also partnering with Greenwave innovations to introduce energy sub-monitoring systems into each of the city’s 10 largest emitting community-facing municipal buildings as well as one building within their water/wastewater portfolio.