By Kelli Corscadden
Owner wants funding to stay energy-efficient, reports Kelli Corscadden.
Tony Kue uses solar energy to heat the water for his busy Centretown car wash, but he says he can’t afford to maintain the 21-year-old system.
“The government doesn’t want to help us. If they took less from us – because the taxes here are so high – we would be willing to replace the panels,” says Kue, owner of the Minute Car Wash on Catherine Street.
When Kue took ownership of the building in July 2002, it already had the current solar hot water system, acquired through a federal government grant in 1982.
The government still offers incentives for new environmentally efficient energy users through the Office of Energy Efficiency, but there are no funds available to help Kue replace his car wash’s aging solar panels.
To qualify for federal money to restore existing solar energy components, businesses must have annual energy bills of over $100,000.
Kue says his car wash pays over $15,000 per year for energy, and with the savings from the current solar panels, even in their degraded condition, the car wash falls short of qualifying for a federal grant.
The City of Ottawa can’t help either, because it does not offer any incentives for a project as large and expensive as Kue’s may potentially be.
Instead, the city is focusing on making everyday activities, such as commuting and energy-efficient lighting, more attractive to citizens.
“We are working on a number of incentives that were put on hold during amalgamation,” says the City of Ottawa’s environment manager, Cynthia Levesque.
“We need to find ways to discourage inefficient energy use and encourage people to reduce energy consumption.”
Levesque says the city would like to help businesses become more energy efficient, but Mayor Bob Chiarelli says energy efficient choices are not economically viable for everyone.
“The investment has to make economic sense. They have to weigh business interests against environmental concerns,” says Chiarelli. “Businesses have to be concerned about the bottom line.”
Though the initial investment for a solar heating system may be substantial, it usually saves businesses money within five to seven years.
According to Natural Resources Canada, a new solar heating system of the car wash’s size should save $10,800 per year on energy bills.
The Minute Car Wash still finds solar heating beneficial; it is the investment of what Kue estimates could be up to $100,000 that will make it hard to continue using solar energy.
“It is definitely worth replacing,” says car wash manager Jerry Perkins, who has been working there since the solar panels were installed.
“It worked excellent when it was newer but we need a whole new system. The water is still warm in the winter, but it’s not like it used to be.”
Kue will continue to get estimates of the cost to replace the panels and update the system, but he may have to revert to an electrical hot water heater. Kue says he will have to decide soon, before the solar panels fail completely, whether he can still afford to be environmentally conscious and energy efficient.