Sunday, October 17, 2010

Going solar


We have decided to participate in the Ontario governments MicroFIT solar energy program as we have a lovely long sheep loafing barn with a south facing roof-perfect for solar panels. We are getting a 10 KW system which will only take up part of the roof. This is the maximum allowed under the program in order to get the 8O.2 cents a KW hour that Ontario Hydro will pay. This is for a roof-mounted system. A ground mounted one pays a bit less.

An engineer came out yesterday and approved the structure, with a couple of minor repairs where Jim had managed to hit the support truss with his tractor. It needed to be fixed anyway.

We had already applied for a contract with the MicroFIT people. They are backlogged -what's new?- so it could take a few weeks before the panels arrive. Anyone thinking of doing this, please do not put any money down until you have one of these contracts signed and ready to go. If you apply now, you will have to wait until the new year for MicroFIT approval.

We will keep you posted as to our progress with this scheme.

REGION 8 SHEEP MEETING is on Monday 18th Oct at 7 p.m at the primary school near the hospital in Napanee. Sheri will be talking on sheep hoof trimming, horn dis-budding and other topics.