Powering Canmore's Green Business Hub: The I-Place Solar Project

Just off the highway in Canmore, at 1 Industrial Place, sits a mixed-use development that's become a small hub for the town's green economy: I-Place is home to a cluster of green businesses, sustainable vendors, and low-carbon mobility initiatives, including electric- and hybrid-car sharing and e-bike programs. It's fitting, then, that its rooftop now hosts BVGEC's second community-owned solar installation, and the project that proved the RCMUC model could be replicated.

Installation began on July 5, 2022, in partnership with Kuby Renewable Energy Ltd. What went up on the roof was described as phase one of the project, a first instalment of 283 solar panels forming a 127 kW system, with the phase one framing hinting at room to grow the array further down the road. Getting there took a group effort: the project came together through collaboration between BVGEC, SBL Contractors, I-Place representative Steve Landi, and funding support from Emissions Reduction Alberta.

The system was switched on November 7, 2022, when Toby Brodkorb of BVGEC and Donna Landi, representing I-Place, flipped the switch together, BVGEC's second community-owned solar generation system in the Bow Valley. It was expected to generate roughly 135,000 kWh of clean electricity a year, enough to offset about 88 tonnes of CO₂ annually, all of it feeding a development built around sustainable, forward-thinking businesses.

By its first anniversary, the system had outperformed expectations, generating 141.9 MWh of power and offsetting 95 tonnes of CO₂, the equivalent of planting 1,577 trees. As with every BVGEC project, the I-Place installation is cooperatively funded, which means the profits from selling that energy don't disappear into a utility's bottom line. They get reinvested in the next local solar installation, continuing a cycle that has now powered four projects across the Bow Valley and Calgary.

Ready to be part of the next one? Become an investor and help fund new community solar projects across the Bow Valley.