The college benefits from annual carbon neutral funding from the provincial government and in the past has used it to purchase greener products, including LED lightbulbs, automatic faucets and more.
Last year, the Facilities department used the funding for a solar panel array for the NLC Farm in Dawson Creek. The 12-panel system is tied into the electrical grid and is capable of producing five megawatt hours per year.
Since last summer, the array has produced 2.9 megawatt hours of energy. That would be the equivalent of running a 100watt lightbulb for three years non-stop or running a refrigerator for 21 months.
It’s also the equivalent of saving 52 trees.
The college also has plans to install a new solar array on the roof of the Trades Training Centre this year. Phase one of the plan will have thirty 360watt panels to produce 13 megawatt hours per year. The full array will have one hundred and fifty 360watt panels, it will produce 65 megawatt hours per year.
While the array isn’t completely carbon neutral, it does lower the college’s energy consumption from the power grid. NLC is also looking at upgrading the solar panels that are currently part of the Centre for Clean Energy Technology in the future.
