Biggar Jubilee Stadium arena's ice plant will be converting to solar power. (Google Maps)

By Angela Brown

Cost saving solution

Biggar upgrading arena ice plant to solar power with new ICIP support

May 13, 2021 | 12:00 PM

The Town of Biggar plans to upgrade its arena ice plant to solar power energy with recently announced support from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).

Through the program, the federal government is contributing $89,364 or 40 per cent of the cost, the province $74,463 or 33.33 per cent, with the Town of Biggar to cover the remaining $59,584 of the total $223,411 project.

“We will actually be able to take our rink totally off the grid,” Coun. Alan Boyle said. “We’re not sure, but we think we’re the only town in the province that has a zero power-bill for their rink. So we’re pretty excited about that.”

The work will involve upgrading the Biggar Jubilee Stadium Arena ice plant’s power supply by attaching 249 solar panels and the associated equipment to the rooftop, to serve a portion of the building’s electricity needs with “clean and high-quality power,” according to the town’s report. The arena is a municipally-owned facility.

This will be the third solar project for the Town of Biggar. In the summer of 2019 the town installed solar on the roof of its community hall and in the summer of 2020 for its arena. CAO Marty Baroni said in an email to battlefordsNOW, to date the town has saved over $10,000 on electricity costs.

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“Usage in these facilities was down in 2020 due to the pandemic, and the ice plant is by far the biggest user of electricity of the projects to date. The intent of the town is to be as close to off-the-grid and as close to net zero as possible, and continue to explore solar in additional municipal buildings in the future,” Baroni said.

Coun. Boyle said the town became interested in the idea of using solar power after hearing more about it at a trade show.

“It was just an alternate source of revenue,” he said, while adding the price of converting to solar power has reduced in the last few years as another incentive.

The town believed it would be a good way to save some money, Boyle said, and also “bring our town into more of a green position.”

He said the town was looking to reduce costs without increasing taxes, so finding alternate sources of revenue seemed like the best solution.

“We’re really hoping to continue putting all our town buildings onto solar power—our town hall, our water plant, our water treatment plant, the town shop,” Boyle said. “That’s our plan. So we’re very excited about rolling that out, and trying to continue with that.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow