The ongoing decommissioning of the Drake Landing Solar Community is bringing an end to a groundbreaking initiative. Although it would be easy to view the dismantling of the system and term the project a failure, that would be shortsighted and overlook its many benefits.
The project put Okotoks on the map back in 2006 when it became the first of its kind in North America, proponents taking a pioneering approach to tackling climate change and the burning of fossil fuels. Despite wading into uncharted waters, the system proved to be extremely successful, eventually meeting the entirety of the 52-home subdivision’s heating requirements with solar energy.
Unfortunately, time has caught up with a good idea. In a bit of a double whammy, components started to age while technology continued to evolve, leaving the solar community in a bind, with one official likening the situation to trying to fit a 2024 engine part into a 2006 vehicle. The difficult decision was ultimately made to decommission the system and convert the homes to natural gas furnaces.
So even though the project, which received international acclaim, is ending, it not only showed what’s possible, but it greatly added to the collective knowledge of these types of systems and how they can be undertaken moving forward.
It stands to reason that a pioneering effort like this one was always going to be at the mercy of technology as advancements in any sector have a way of making early iterations obsolete. Our computers and phones sure aren’t the same as they were back in 2006, nor is the way we access movies or music, so it’s not surprising that solar technology has similarly advanced.
The Drake Landing Solar Community is becoming a piece of Okotoks history, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth the investment.