- In the last six years, SSREC has been instrumental in the installation of close to 110 solar arrays on roofs of residential and community buildings, and a few ground mounts, around the Southern Gulf Islands
- We’ve installed close to 3000 panels with a total capacity exceeding 850 kW
- These PV arrays generate close to 900,000 kWh of electricity a year, while preventing the emission of almost 300 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year over hydroelectricity
Latest News
Annual General Meeting (virtual) June 12, 2024; 7 – 8:30 pm Pacific Time
Hello SSREC members and other solar enthusiasts – our AGM is coming up! Annual General Meeting (virtual) June 12, 2024 7 – 8:30 pm Pacific Time We have a great guest speaker, [...]
SSREC Annual Report – April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023
Highlights Membership As of March 31, 2023 we had 178 shareholders (minus 1 deceased whose estate donated his share, and 1 member who moved away and was reimbursed) for a total of [...]
Update on the workings and achievements of SSREC
SSREC encourages islanders to go solar and provides help along the way, from planning, advising, assessments and recommending the appropriate equipment to installation. And save a few bucks along the way. Luckily, [...]
Canada Greener Homes Grant Assessments
Update: The Canada Greener Homes Grant closed in April, 2024 more info Many of you may have applied for the Canada Greener Homes Grant, which provides up to $5,000 for energy efficient [...]
Electric Vehicles and Solar Energy – Their Role in Climate Change Mitigation
By Tom Mommsen (SSREC) 1 - Preamble As made perfectly clear in the recent reports from the IPCC, the world must stop burning stuff. Not in 2025 or 2030. Now. When emissions [...]
Solar Energy and Battery Storage – A Primer
by Tom Mommsen, SSREC Solar modules combined with batteries are increasingly popular – if somewhat expensive – because they allow homeowners and small businesses to generate and store their own emission-free electricity [...]
SSREC’s Guide to BC Hydro’s Net Metering Questionnaire
Last March and April, BC Hydro held two workshops on net metering as part of a series of engagement activities for their net metering program. As part of the activities, a questionnaire [...]
Musings on Capturing Solar Radiation with Solar Panels
By Tom Mommsen & Risa Smith Capturing solar radiation with solar panels makes sense for a number of important reasons: a. Conceptually: Input from the sun is fairly predictable, entirely free of [...]
Musings on capturing solar energy to provide energy for a battery electric vehicle (BEV)
By Tom Mommsen & Risa Smith With British Columbia phasing out the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICEV) in the next dozen years and switching to battery electric vehicles (BEVs), [...]
FEATURED ARTICLE
Community Solar in BC – A Short Primer
This article was first published in early 2017, and since then the community of Hudson’s Hope has been busy installing 500 kW solar PV on public buildings, and the Upper Nicola Band is embarking on a 15 MW solar project, while two independent utilities (Summerland, New Westminster) have seen the light and follow Nelson in installing community solar. On the negative side, BC Hydro’s standing offer programs have since been suspended, and BC Hydro is attacking the net-metering program with an application to the BC Utilities Commission to limit net-metering. Link: http://www.bcuc.com/ApplicationView.aspx?ApplicationId=629