Enmax envisions solar-powered skyscrapers that feed the grid

Calgary-based Enmaxis envisioning a city of solar-powered skyscrapers feeding the grid.

The power company is receivingpublic fundsin hopes of eventually increasingthe renewable energy usedand createdin thedowntown core.

Enmaxsays its engineers have developed a way to fix a problem faced by many cities and tap into a huge potential market that could include solar panels topping skyscrapers.

Many big cities use specialized so-called secondary networks to supply reliable power to urban communities. Right now, those specialized power grids are locked down to typically only send power one way.

Any home or business on that secondary grid that generates its own energywith solar panels or co-generation machines needs special controls in order tosend any excess power back into the system.

Those controls stop their power generators from feeding electricity at any time, a defence that helps the grid stay reliable.

But Enmax says the cost of those protections is prohibitive so they're rarely used. Instead, that green energy is often wasted.

Enmaxhopesto make it affordableto install renewable energy generators and feed that power into the grid while giving customers credit on their power bills, which can be done alreadyon more generalized residential grids.

The companyplans to test the new tech over the coming four years, with the help of $1.4 millionfrom the federal government's green infrastructure program for the project.

"What this is going to allow customers to do is to be able to generate electricity on their buildings in a downtown core, use what they need but if they have excess, then they can put it back onto the grid," Enmax president and CEO Gianna Manes said Tuesday.

"We can't do that with our technology today."

The corporation will seek a customer in Calgary's downtown core to test out its technology for a pilot project that'sexpected to wrap up in 2022. The goal after that will be to roll it out commercially, the company said.

At a press conference held in Calgary on Tuesday,Natural Resources MinisterAmarjeetSohi hailed the proposal as green and "the next generation" of electricity production.

"This problem isn't limited to Calgary. Most North American cities are experiencing the same issue, which is why we believeEnmax'sapproach is the future of electricity in Canada,"Sohitold reporters.

"Next generation technology that can safely unlock the potential for clean, local electricity sources, taking us one step closer to [the] low-carbon economy that Canadians told us they want."

The technique would lower greenhouse gas emissions and make the power grid more resilient, saidSohi, whorepresentsEdmonton-Mill Woods.

The power company hopes the technology will remove barriers for customers to adopt green energy production options, such as solar power.

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