Solar City Halifax saves 30 million litres of water

A Halifax-area program that helps homeowners use solar power to heat water is seeing a record uptake and is having a positive effect on conservation, the city says.

The civic program paysthe $6,000 to $8,000 to install panels on the roof and tanks in the house. Homeowners then pay the full amount back to HRM over a decade viaincreased property taxes.

In the last eight months, 120 families in metro have made the installations

I could safely say it's [saved] hundreds of dollars already. [I feel] totally elated, said Jessica von Handorfof theHigh Hopes Housing Co-op in Halifax.

Shell tally up the full savings after a year has passed.

Huge environmental impact

Julian Boyle, head of HRMs Solar City Program, said the success is widespread.

We're really pleased on a lot of different fronts about the way the program's running right now, he said.

The environmental impact is about 200,000kilograms of CO2 reduction so far. There's also a water conservation effort embedded within the program."

He said more than30million litres of water will be reduced annually through the program.

HRM wants to expand the program and the concept. A new subdivision, for example, could orient homes toward the sun to improve solar energy.