“Going solar” to reduce emissions at our Town Border Stations

SaskEnergy’s Town Border Station (TBS) 1 in southwest Regina has begun to generate enough solar power to offset its annual consumption.

The conversion of the Regina station to generate solar power included the installation of 176 solar panels on-site. During the day, the panels will not only generate enough energy to power the station itself but will, at times, create excess energy for the province’s power grid. Once the sun sets, the station will draw power off the grid through a net metering agreement with SaskPower. 

The solar power system at TBS 1 has a total generation capacity of nearly 80,000 watts — enough to power the station’s lighting and electric heat, as well as the equipment that controls the station’s odourization and distribution of natural gas to homes and businesses in Regina.

“Over the course of a year, we expect that the station’s net electrical usage from the province’s power grid will balance out to zero,” says SaskEnergy’s Acting President and CEO Mark Guillet. “This project visibly demonstrates SaskEnergy’s commitment to environmental sustainability, and it’s just one of the ways we plan to reduce our environmental impact over the next several years.”

Installation of the system was completed by Saskatoon-based miEnergy — a majority Indigenous-owned business and one of Western Canada’s leading renewable energy companies.

This project is an important step in achieving our emissions reduction goal of 35 per cent by 2030. TBS 1 is the first of several such facilities across Saskatchewan that will be converted to generate solar power over the next seven years.