Masstown Market Completes Massive Solar Project
DEBERT — A landmark Nova Scotian business has just finished a major solar project. Masstown Market, located in a tiny village of Masstown (population 156), is now generating 230 kilowatts of energy. The solar company that installed the panels and infrastructure, Sun Kissed Energy, says it’s by far the biggest solar project they’ve done in their three-year existence. The second largest is just 100 kWs.
“It was overwhelming. to be honest with you,” said Sun Kissed owner Mark Shelley, reflecting on finishing the year-long project at Masstown. “We’ve taken quite a large power bill and reduced it significantly. It’s a wonderful feeling, for sure.”
The project will come to an official end following a routine inspection of the infrastructure this Saturday.
Masstown market is actually a family of five companies all in one location. On top of the market, which sells fresh produce from local farmers, there is also a pharmacy, creamery, and butchery.
The creamery takes local milk and creates dairy products on the spot, which it then sells on-site. The butchery also uses local livestock for its meat.
The 230-kW solar project was done over the past year in three phases: the roof of the creamery and butchery, a ground mount, and finally the pharmacy. The 15,000-square-foot building that hosts the creamery and the butchery is the focus of the new solar power.
Ron Smith, the manager of business development for Masstown Market, estimates that the solar panels will eliminate 94-97 percent of that building’s power bill. Smith said he has already been able to show Masstown ownership early results.
“When your job is to spend other people’s money, it’s nice to be able to hold up your phone with the app and say ‘look, I just want to show that we are on the track to saving money here.’ It’s a very validating, reassuring feeling,” Smith said.
Smith became Masstown Market’s manager of business development nine years ago. Almost from the beginning, he has looked at ways to go greener. But it never quite worked out.
“We continuously looked at a variety of projects to become more green. We’ve looked at solar in the past, with a couple of different providers,” said Smith. “We’ve looked at wind turbines and we even looked a couple of times at converting our own vegetable byproducts into biogas. “
But, in late 2021, when Masstown Market hooked up with Sun Kissed Energy, the technology had gotten better and the finances made more sense. And even though Smith said the huge solar project cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, it will take less than a decade to recoup.
“When we began this process, maybe seven or eight years ago, you were looking at 14-17 years to get your money back,” said Smith. “And now, we figure that we’re certainly under a decade. We’re probably more like six-to-seven years that we’ll get a return on our investment.”
Mark Shelley says in the three years that he’s owned Sun Kissed energy, solar panel technology has made leaps and bounds. That’s made it much cheaper and easier for businesses and homes to wean off Nova Scotia Power’s grid.
Masstown Market’s creamery’s rooftop was ideal for solar panels. But now, you no longer need such a large surface area to make the dollars and cents work. Shelley says solar is a chance for business owners to convert a variable cost into a fixed cost.
“The solar panel technology has gotten much better,” says Shelley. “Years ago, the biggest solar panel you could get was like 200 watts. Right now, they’re making 600-watt panels. So, if you think about the surface area of a roof, and you’re limited to the surface area, now we could get much more watts on the same surface area of the roof.”
“At the end of the day, any business owner wants to have a fixed cost, not variable. And when you’re paying Nova Scotia Power, anybody can attest to the vulnerability or volatility of the power bill going up, [especially with] carbon taxes coming in July. “
Shelley notes demand has tripled over the past couple of years for solar panels in Nova Scotia. It helps that there are government programs in place for switching to solar, such as a series of rebates. Sun Kissed has its head office in Truro, but with demand growing, they will be opening an Elmsdale location to service the Halifax area.
“We can eliminate your power bill,” says Shelley. The best advertising for us is when we install a system because everybody in the neighborhood wants one afterward.”
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].