City of Kimberley, Teck Resources and EcoSmart Foundation: SunMine – Converting a Minesite to a Solar Field
Projects Sponsor
Delta Management Group is the leading sustainability, ESG and clean tech focused search firm in Canada. Delta is proud to have founded the Canada's Clean50 Award program in 2011, and has been the primary sponsor for the past 13 years.
A true collaboration, Michel DeSpot of the EcoSmart Foundation first approached the City of Kimberley and Teck Resources in 2008 about a partnership to build Western Canada’s first large-scale solar facility on a reclaimed mine site. In the heart of BC and with over 300 days of annual sunshine, Kimberley was a natural – and in 2011 76% of voters supported the City borrowing $2M towards the construction.
Teck provided a reclaimed mining site, an existing substation, and $2M in support to the project, and with help from other funders, including $1M from EcoSmart, the project commenced commercial operations in June 2015, becoming the first large-scale grid-connected solar facility in Western Canada, the first in Canada to utilize solar tracking technology and the first solar facility built by a municipality, or on a reclaimed mine site. The 997 MWh of electricity generated by the SunMine in the first 12 months resulted in the avoidance of 604 tonnes of CO2, generated $195,730 in revenue for the City.
