At that moment, and likely for the next several hours if the sun held out, the City of Summerside was and would be powered entirely by its own local renewable energy sources.
“I can’t imagine where we’re going to be 10 years from now, 20 years from now – because 10 years ago, no one thought we’d be here.” “With solar adding to the portfolio of over 40 per cent wind and 22 per cent solar will see Summerside Electric customers seeing times with 100 per cent renewable energy more often throughout the year,” noted Greg Gaudet, director of municipal services for the city, under which management of Summerside Electric falls.
Summerside Electric also buys electricity from N.B. Power to make up for the difference and has some local diesel-electric generation capacity. “Solar and wind both certainly depend on the weather and it’s never sunny or windy all of the time – so you try to fill in those gaps. I think the batteries are going to provide us an opportunity to stretch that renewable energy over a greater number of hours in the day,” said Arsenault.