The Canadian province of Nova Scotia announced 18 Solar Community Project winners at events around the province on Friday November 10, 2017.
Rev. Neale Bennet, the President of Atlantic School of Theology, was at the announcement in the AST Library in Halifax. The Atlantic School of Theology was one of the successful applicants in the competitive bidding process.
“It’s about the vision we have for our campus and our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint,” said Rev. Bennet in an interview after the announcement.
“We’re really thrilled to be included in this pilot program. We know we need to advance sustainability as a university because of what we are teaching our students. Students are here to learn about being leaders in a more just, sustainable, and compassionate society. So this, for us, is a little bit of walking the talk,” added Rev. Bennet.
“Our Advancement Officer did some research on how we can advance the principle of sustainability through upgrades to our campus,” said Bennet.
“I think it’s wonderful,” added Linda Moxim, AST’s Advancement Officer.
“We worked with a company called Dr. Solar, and they did the technical. The whole process of pulling the application together went really well,” said Bennet.
“This project at AST is 50 kilowatts. It’s as big as any one project can be,” said Peter Craig, representing the N.S. Department of Energy, after the announcement.
“This is round one and there will be another round in the spring of 2018,” explained Dr. Wayne Groszko, representing Solar Nova Scotia.
Dr. Wayne Groszko representing Solar Nova Scotia
“Solar Nova Scotia is super excited about what’s going on today with these brand new solar projects announced. We’re going to have a lot more solar electricity as a result. It’s going to be benefiting community organizations, kind of a win – win all around,” said Groszko in the AST Library.
“Eighteen successful applicants to the program accounts for almost 700 kilowatts worth of solar,” said Craig.
“Of the eighteen, a lot of them went for the maximum, a 50 kilowatt system. There’s the economies of scale piece,” added Craig.
“The Department of Energy has put together a map on www.novascotia.ca/solar that shows where all of these projects are going to go. If you click on each one, you can see how big each one is going to be,” said Groszko.