Ladysmith Takes The Lead

City Hall Outfitted With New Solar Hot Water System

Globe Solar system stands tall on the Ladysmith City Hall building.

The Town of Ladysmith has joined the solar revolution in BC, installing a solar hot water system on their City Hall. According to City Manager Ruth Malli, this leadership inititative came about because of the local Rotary Club. The Town is a recognized leader in sustainbility and encourages opportunites to be brought to them to 'try first'.

"Our position has always been that we won’t ask people to do something we wouldn’t do ourselves," she said of the install that they hope will help promote systems for residential use. Ruth explained the town wanted to test out an install first, and look into the bylaws to see how they could best support installs in the future. They also used this opportunity to inform staff and building inspectors of the process.

According to Mayor Rob Hutchins, one of the goals being to see what it was going to take to move their community to a different energy source. "We have to individually and collectively reduce green house gas emissions," he said. "whether that's geo thermal, geo exchange, wind or solar."

Mayor Hutchins said they looked at all the various applications but due to the challenge of their area having limited wind capabilities, they chose to go solar. He added that they hope to encourage others to move to renewable energy sources.

"You can say you support something but you don’t know the implications of something until you do it," said Ruth. "We wanted to be able to help others, and be responsive to questions so people aren’t getting discouraged in the process."

Taking the initiative is something the town does well, having recently purchased electric vehicles with the intent to facilitate them for residential use. This "we’ll try it first" approach has worked well, and Ruth said its amazing the response they got from others, who came to them with both resources and initiative – from the donation of panels by Globe Solar Energy and parts and labour donated by JB Solar, to sponsorship by the local Rotary Club.

"When you put out the right message, people will respond," she said. The visibility of the system has created quite a buzz, although various community members were part of a visioning process with the town, during the planning stages. She says the next step is to attach a meter to the system in order to monitor its impact on the energy consumption of the building, and to troubleshoot any issues that may arise.

"We’re prepared to take risks, because we’re a community that wants to show leadership, and be innovative."