This Thursday, Feb. 11, Invermere-based design and installation company Kootenay Solar Power is putting on a one-hour Zoom presentation and Q&A to discuss the merits of installing solar panels.
Kootenay Solar, going into year three of operations, is owned by Stu Bilodeau and Eden Yesh. Bilodeau is a journeyman electrician who wanted to get into solar from the time he got into electrical work many years ago.
Yesh describes his role as being the “brains behind the business development partnership”, and research and development component of the partnership, while Bilodeau is the VP of operations and executes all the projects.
“We’re really focused on de-centralized energy and affordability of electricity,” Yesh said. “Solar is now the lowest cost energy production globally and even in Canada, for any new electricity generated solar is the lowest greenhouse gas emissions.”
Yeah said that in around 2015, it became just as affordable to produce your own electricity on your rooftop as it was to purchase it from a utility company.
Now, it’s cheaper and you can produce your own electricity for around $0.08 per kilowatt hour over the life of the system, while it’s around $0.10 to $0.14, depending on what step you’re at with BC Hydro.
“So now you’re not seeing just environmentalists installing solar, it’s a really good investment now,” Yesh said.
An average client of Kootenay Solar is in the 55 to 60 age range, typically in their retirement home where they know they will be for the next 20 to 30 years.
“They see the writing on the wall with electricity rates rising four to six per cent every single year and that’s one of their highest fixed costs, electricity,” Yesh said.
Kootenay Solar has done these Rooftop Solar 101 presentations before, most recently in Pass Creek at a community association last spring. They go over all the research and development Yesh has done over the last three years, from how the silicone in the panels produces electricity at the atomic level down to the differences in types of systems: net metering system versus a battery back up system versus an off grid system.
Attendees will learn how they mount the panels to their roof, how their electricity rates will be impacted and how their greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced, as well as the importance of tackling carbon footprints and the larger issue of climate change as a whole.
“I take it from the large level, like why are the global governments signing up to this Paris Climate Accord and why is everyone trying to reduce their carbon footprint and how can you do something about it on your own rooftop,” Yesh explained.
Kootenay Solar currently has about 300 estimates for potential clients in their database and 12 projects already booked for this spring. By hosting these presentations, Yesh has a more efficient way of getting his company’s message out to more people, rather than describing it individually.
To learn how to get onto the Zoom presentation follow Kootenay Solar on Facebook, RSVP to the event page here https://www.facebook.com/events/246094883750546 and email info@kootenaysolarpower.com for any further information or to get a recording of past presentations.
Their next presentation is on March 16.
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