Harvesting rooftop rays in Canada's oil capital
By Christopher Pollon
When Liz and John Ayer renovated their Calgary home three years ago, it was re-designed to maximize exposure to the sun - a natural resource few major cities can match in Canada.
That meant adding multiple skylights to their 70-year-old bungalow in Cambrian Heights, a rapidly-densifying 1950s-era community about five minutes from downtown - and lots of big windows to maximize passive solar heating in colder months.
"We get a lot of sun here, even in the winter," said Liz, sitting in the living room, brilliant with light in early February. "We have all this sun, so why not use it?"
In the autumn of 2024, they went a step further by installing 10 photovoltaic panels on their back roof, angled to maximize the south and south-west sun exposure of their home.
Like most Calgarians, natural gas is the electricity workhorse in their daily lives, providing heat and hot water. But since the panels went up, the Ayers use solar energy to power their plug-in hybrid car, a backyard waterfall fountain in the summer and a year-round hot tub.
Living in a big city, we view this as our small contribution to making our lives more sustainable," Liz told Canada's National Observer.
Why go solar?
Multiple factors drove their decision to invest in home solar.
"Our motivation was to use less natural gas from the utility, and use the natural source of the sun," she said. "It was environment first and economics second."
Thanks to Alberta's unique regulatory framework, any homeowner with a grid-connected solar system can become a "micro-generator" and participate in net metering, selling any surplus energy back to the grid.
It's not a huge amount for the Ayers, but this past June they received a $49.50 "microgeneration credit" on their monthly utility bill for the unused surplus.
It was environmental first, and economics second…
This reporting is produced with support from I-SEA’s Climate Solutions project and is not behind National Observer’s subscriber paywall. Readers are asked to create a FREE National Observer account to access the full article.