BVGEC's First Project: Ralph Connor Memorial United Church

In downtown Canmore, tucked beneath the peaks of the Bow Valley, stands a small white church with a history nearly as old as the town itself. Ralph Connor Memorial United Church has a 130-year-old sanctuary, built in 1890 91, and a hall that's stood alongside it for 40 years. The sanctuary was renamed in 1942 in honour of the church's founder and first minister, Charles W. Gordon, who wrote popular stories and novels under the pen name Ralph Connor. In January 2021, not long before construction began on what would become BVGEC's very first project, the congregation celebrated the building's 130th birthday.

It's fitting that BVGEC's story starts here. As an Alberta Heritage-listed building, the church came with an unusual condition attached to any solar installation: the panels couldn't be visible from the ground. It would take careful planning, and a congregation willing to embrace something new, to make it work.

That congregation turned out to be exactly the right partner. RCMUC has a large number of retired members, including engineers, a public-building architect, and a former high school shop instructor, and it was this pool of skills and enthusiasm that helped carry the project from idea to reality. On September 17, 2021, Jeff Roberts of BVGEC and Rev. Greg Wooley of RCMUC flipped the switch together, energizing an 11.25 kWdc photovoltaic system made up of 30 panels rated at 375 watts each. It was the first community-owned solar generation system in the Bow Valley and in Alberta, and RCMUC became BVGEC's first public partner in the process.

The system was projected to produce around 12,000 kWh of clean electricity a year, enough to offset roughly 7.4 tonnes of CO₂ annually, with an initial goal of covering about 80 percent of the church's electrical needs. It didn't take long to prove itself: in its first 90 days alone, the array generated 1,590 kWh. By its first anniversary, that number had grown to 11.7 MWh, offsetting 8.2 tonnes of CO₂, and covering 100 percent of the church's own energy use, well past the original goal. BVGEC and installer Kuby Renewable Energy Ltd keep a close eye on performance through dashboards that update every five minutes, tracking each panel in real time. The milestone was marked with a BBQ at the church on September 17, 2022, a year to the day after the switch was first flipped.

Solar was only the beginning of RCMUC's climate story. Once the panels were up, the congregation started working with Stephen Collette, Building Grants Manager for Faith & the Common Good, who introduced the team to a DIY Energy Audit Guidebook as part of the United Church of Canada's Faithful Footprints program. Going through the guidebook, they found plenty of low-hanging fruit worth tackling: LED lighting, Energy Star kitchen appliances, and solar-powered outdoor lights all made the list. They also traced a longstanding comfort problem in the church's narthex to a ductwork issue: two supply vents and no return, leaving the space cold and stagnant. Fixing that, and discovering along the way that the ductwork running through the crawlspace wasn't insulated at all, led to a broader upgrade that included a heat recovery ventilator, which preheats incoming winter air using the warmth of the air already being expelled. The improvements paid off in ways beyond the utility bill too: congregants noticed better air quality during a smoky wildfire season, and easier reading under the new lighting.

Faithful Footprints is a United Church of Canada program designed to help congregations reduce their carbon footprint, part of the UCC's broader commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Delivered by Faith & the Common Good, the program offers grants of up to $30,000 for qualifying energy conservation and renewable energy projects, and has worked with more than 200 UCC congregations, camps, and buildings across the country. RCMUC's project became one of its standout stories, and a natural poster child for future BVGEC partnerships thanks to the church's highly visible location in the heart of downtown Canmore.

It's a story about more than solar panels. It's about a small group of dedicated volunteers, retired engineers and tradespeople among them, deciding that their beautiful, 130-year-old building could lead on climate action rather than simply age quietly in place. Thanks to Ralph Connor Memorial United Church for being first, for being visible, and for proving what community-owned renewable energy can look like in the Bow Valley. Since RCMUC switched on its panels, three more community-owned solar projects have followed in its footsteps.

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