Lasqueti Last Resort Society announced recently phase one of its micro grid project that will electrify the Judith Fisher Centre campus has been completed and commissioned.
“It’s wonderful to have such an amazing and powerful solar electric system for our health centre,” said Tim Peterson, society president. “The generosity of Trina Solar, Surrette Batteries, and S-5 means that the centre can fully function off-grid with minimal use of fossil fuels.” Their contributions along with $48,000 from BC Remote Communities Implementation Program helped bring the system cost down by at least $80,000, he added. BC ministry of energy and mines, Fraser Basin Council, Islands Trust and the Lasqueti Community Association all helped in making the grant funding possible.
The society is a charitable non-profit organization that provides care to elders and others in need within an environment that honours individual choices. Its programs offer safe, quality support; foster dignity, friendship and humour together with opportunities for integration into community life.
The 13.2 kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) array, which is currently the largest on Lasqueti, will supply power to the health centre, an elder cottage (the first of six for the campus) and to the Lasqueti Internet Access Society, the island’s own ISP. The projected load of 24 kilowatt hours a day will be supported by 90-kilowatt hour batteries.
This unique property not only has distributed electricity throughout the micro grid but it has a wood fired distributed heating system. John Martin, a retired heavy-duty mechanic who volunteers at the site said, “I was the maintenance person at the school across the road. Electricity there is supplied by two generators. We never could have considered distributed heating, which depends on pumps, without the reliability and predictability that our new micro grid offers. Using fossil fuels to power the pumps 24-seven would have been cost prohibitive.”
Almost all of the construction labour has been donated by members of the community. Karl Darwin, volunteer project manager, worked closely with Jarek Kubacki of Small Planet Energy during the installation and commissioning of the PV system. “I’ve lived on this island all of my life which is more than six decades. I never expected to see a PV system powerful enough to run electric heaters but here we are drying out our services building by converting excess power, that is being generated by the PV array into electric heat.”
The society had a $750,000 budget for the project and most of that was raised through the 400 permanent residents on Lasqueti. “When I learned that Lasqueti Last Resort Society had already raised over 70 per cent of their budget...I was confident that they would finish the project and that our contribution would make a real difference,” said James Surrette, president of Surrette Batteries.
The society continues to raise funds to complete the Judith Fisher Centre infrastructure, as well as to develop a sufficient revenue stream to operate the centre. To learn more about the project or to make a donation, readers can visit the centre's website.
