OTTAWA – Royal Galipeau, Member of Parliament for Ottawa–Orleans, on behalf of the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources, announced today that the Government of Canada will provide $312,500 in support of the Sustainable Ottawa Community Energy Co-operative's Solar H2Ottawa program. Through this program, 250 solar domestic water heating systems will be made available to the public at substantial discounts.
"Investing and partnering in this project encourages the use of residential solar water heaters in Ottawa and across Canada," said Mr. Galipeau. "The Renewable Heat initiative and the other ecoENERGY programs demonstrate our government's commitment to ensuring that clean, renewable power from the sun, wind and oceans plays an increasingly important role in our future energy mix."
Homeowners installing the systems will also be eligible for grants from the ecoENERGY Retrofit program and matching grants from the Province of Ontario. Sustainable Ottawa has also negotiated bulk purchase discounts with suppliers and installers, bringing the total price reduction for homeowners who purchase a solar water heating system to almost 40 percent.
"Solar H2Ottawa is about addressing the major barriers to wide-scale deployment of solar domestic hot water systems in the Ottawa area," said Rock Radovan, President of Sustainable Ottawa. "We have developed a program that includes reducing costs to homeowners and educating residents. This has been made possible by leveraging the support of the private sector with federal and provincial funding."
The project includes a three-year educational grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation in addition to the Government of Canada's funding and involves a detailed evaluation component that will provide real-world data on system performance to help support decision making on the future of these systems.
Water heating accounts for between 20 and 25 percent of the average household's energy use. A solar water heating system can meet up to 60 percent of a Canadian home's hot water needs and, depending on the energy source it replaces, can cut energy costs by more than $300 a year – while reducing household greenhouse gas emissions by one tonne.
"Sustainable Ottawa Co-op has partnered with the best products and local installers to ensure a long-lasting, highly efficient solar heating system for our climate in Ottawa," said Peter Glover of Isolara Energy Services Inc., one of the local installers. "With the recent increase in the price of heating fuels and the addition of the Solar H2Ottawa rebate, the return on investment has reached a tipping point that makes sense for almost all homeowners."
The ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat initiative is one of a series of ecoENERGY programs through which the Government of Canada is investing more than $3.6 billion to increase Canada's supply of clean, renewable energy and help Canadians reduce their energy costs and emissions. The programs are a key part of the Government of Canada's Turning the Corner plan to fight climate change by achieving an absolute reduction of 20 percent in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
FOR BROADCAST USE:
Ottawa-area homeowners will be soon be able to purchase more affordable solar hot water heating systems for their homes. The Government of Canada has announced funding of more than $300 000 to the Solar H2Ottawa program as part of its ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat initiative.
Media may contact:
Bernadette Murphy
Acting Director of Communications
Office of the Minister
Natural Resources Canada
Ottawa
613-996-2007
Rock Radovan
President
Sustainable Ottawa Community Energy Co-Operative
613-614-7538
rradovan@sustainableottawa.ca
Peter Glover
Director of Marketing
Isolara Energy Services Inc.
613-889-2646
pglover@isolara.com
The general public may contact:
Mon-Fri, 8:30-4:30 EDT
Telephone: 613-995-0947
TTY: 613-996-4397
(teletype for the hearing-impaired)
E-mail: questions@nrcan.gc.ca
NRCan's news releases and backgrounders are available at Natural Resources Canada.
For further information please go to:
Sustainable Ottawa or Ecoaction
