Enmax celebrates ‘early milestone’ for solar energy in Calgary

June 2, 2012 - PRLog -- Keating, who will have 18 solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of his Inglewood home once installation is complete, represents the 100th Calgary homeowner to sign on to “Generate Choice,” an Enmax program that allows customers to lease a solar generating system for use in their own homes. For a monthly fee of $60 (with no down payment and for a 15-year term), customers can have access to the type of green technology that might be financially out of reach if they were to purchase a system outright.

Since the program’s official launch in August 2011, Enmax has installed 220 of the 1.3 kW solar systems throughout the province — and wants to see that number eventually climb to 8,300. While that target is still a long way off, Enmax’s executive vice-president in charge of the program, Helen Bremner, said she is pleased with the uptake so far.

“When we did our marketing launch in 2010, we had a huge amount of interest,” Bremner said. “But obviously, it’s a new concept. It’s opening up a new market, so there’s challenges with that . . . Our target right now is those early adopters.”

Earlier this month, University of Alberta business professor Andrew Leach took aim at the “Generate Choice” program in a blog post. He criticized the economics of the Enmax program, pointing out that while a 1.3 kW solar system will typically produce between 1,000 and 1,400 kWh of electricity per year, Leach himself uses an average of 700 kWh per month. He calculated that one of these solar systems would only save him an average of just over $15 a month on his electricity bill, and argued that isn’t significant considering he would be making monthly payments for 15 years.

Bremner said that Enmax’s solar systems have a lifespan of 40 years, and customers who sign up for the program have the option to purchase the systems for $350 at the end of the 15-year lease term. (They can also have Enmax remove the panels, at a cost of $950.) If they do choose to keep the systems, they will see reduced electricity bills for the rest of the system’s lifespan.

However, Bremner said the company makes it clear to customers that the solar panels are not meant to be money-makers.

“It’s more for a combination of environmental and social reasons — just feeling it’s the right thing to do,” Bremner said. “We don’t promote it as a cost-reduction initiative at the moment.”

For his part, Keating is leasing three times as many panels as a standard system, hoping that the larger generating capacity will at least come close to covering his household electricity needs. He said he has dreamed of installing a solar generating system since he moved into his home a decade ago, and was instantly interested in the convenience factor of Enmax’s leasing arrangement.

Keating said he is convinced the system will pay off in the long-term, but that isn’t his motivation for doing this.“It’s absolutely from the heart — it’s what I believe in,” he said. “It just makes me feel better about consuming energy.”


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