Woodstock Ignites Change With Solar Panels

Friday, 4 September 2015 06:06

City Council approved the installation of solar panels to keep on schedule for that 2050 promise of being 100% reliant on green energy.

WOODSTOCK - Woodstock City Council is hoping to power some change after approving solar panel installations at their first meeting after summer break.

The FIT Program will be putting up rooftop solar panels, but there will also be three ground installations along Tecumseh Street. City of Woodstock Mayor Trevor Birtch says the flexibility in where these panels can be set up offers a lot of opportunity. "It's allowing industry and businesses to do installations. So a lot of the installations we have seen around town have been on the smaller scale this is slightly larger. They can be on the rooftop, they can be ground mounted, so by giving this approval it says that this municipality is 100% behind them with renewable energy."

Mayor Birtch says some businesses are already seeing benefits from projects like these. "When we see businesses that have crunched the numbers and see the payback, it is not just about the money that they are earning at the same time, they know that they're helping with the sustainability with our environment. I think as we see more and more of these installations there'll be great attention and other business will want to crunch those numbers too."

The ground mounted solar panels will mainly be going up on vacant land. The locations are 255 Tecumseh Street, 303 Tecumseh Street, and 313 Tecumseh Street.

Mayor Birtch spoke to Heart FM about what this means for the goal of going 100% green by 2050. "We've had a lot of good exposure regarding the renewable energy goal for the county of Oxford, and it is being seen in all of the area municipalities. Zorra Township also passed to be renewable energy efficient by the year 2040. Zorra has sent out that challenge to all the area municipalities; I'm sure we we will be dealing with a similar resolution."