Four small solar systems that prepared the town
Before Drake Landing, the Town of Okotoks already ran four modest solar heating systems, and in April 2005 they were being cited as proof that a prairie town could make solar practical.
Event date: 2005-04-05
The announcement and the cost question
In late March 2005 the federal government announced plans to build and run North America's first large-scale solar heating system with seasonal storage, serving 52 new homes in Okotoks. The design aim was to cover more than 90 per cent of their space heating.
At the time solar heat cost more than natural gas. The argument for building it anyway was experience: if gas prices climbed as supplies tightened, a town that had already learned to run solar storage would be ahead. The system was also expected to save about five tonnes of greenhouse gas per home each year.
Four systems already running
The town was not starting from zero. Its pool used solar collectors to preheat water, with natural gas covering the remainder. An arena had carried rooftop collectors since 2001 that supplied much of the heat for resurfacing ice, backed by a gas boiler.
At the recycling centre, eight roof collectors sent heat through pipes into the concrete floor of the cardboard baling building. At the operations centre a dark metal solar wall warmed incoming fresh air, and in summer the same arrangement helped cool the building.
A town with a sustainability habit
Okotoks had committed to a sustainable approach to growth in the late 1990s, and the solar installations sat alongside energy-efficiency retrofits of public buildings. That track record is part of why the federal program looked at the town in the first place. The about page and the partners page describe who joined the effort.
What became of the idea
A column from another prairie city used the Okotoks examples to ask why its own community could not do the same. Drake Landing went on to answer part of that question with real data, shown on the performance results page, and how it works explains the storage side. Monitoring later recorded a 97 per cent solar share by 2012 and 100 per cent in the 2015-16 heating season. From about 2020 the system suffered deterioration and maintenance problems, decommissioning began in 2024, and most homes moved to natural-gas furnaces. For the current state of the field and Energy Centre, check with the Town of Okotoks or ATCO.
Quick answers
What solar systems did Okotoks have before Drake Landing?
It had solar preheating for the town pool, rooftop collectors for ice resurfacing at an arena, an in-floor solar system at the recycling centre, and a solar wall at the operations centre.
Why was solar worth building if it cost more than gas in 2005?
The project was meant to build operating experience ahead of expected gas price increases.