SASKATOON, Saskatchewan—The Saskatchewan Environmental Society has won a $50,000 prize from Affinity Credit Union’s Business for Good Social Venture Challenge.
Saskatchewan Environmental Society was awarded the funds after winning a popular vote and raising $59,000 on its own via crowdfunding. It said the $109,000 raised so far puts it one-third of the way toward the capital goal it has set for a solar energy co-op.
The winning idea is based on a plan that calls for 400 voltaic panels to be set up on a parcel of land to produce 100 kilowatts of power. Co-op members will be able to purchase one or more panels, for $900 each. The power will be sold to SaskPower or Saskatoon Light & Power, with which Saskatchewan Environmental Society is currently negotiating. Co-op members would continue to pay their power bills, but the co-op will reimburse them for the power their panel or panels makes throughout the year.
According to SES, based on SaskPower's offer so far of 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, a co-op member would recoup $700 of his or her $900 investment in 25 years. Forty panels have been sold so far.