How Students And A Local Startup Are Helping Dartmouth IKEA Use Its Wasted Solar Energy
HALIFAX — A group NSCC of students, a Halifax startup, and one of the biggest corporations in the world are working together to advance green-energy research in Nova Scotia.
The work centres around the largest solar array in the province, which sits atop the massive IKEA showroom in Dartmouth.
Students from NSCC’s Applied Energy Research Lab are working with ROCarbon Labs to find ways to better use the energy the solar array produces.
And while their work could eventually help IKEA better operate its complex solar system, ROCarbon’s CEO, Megan McCarthy, thinks it could also be an important step towards getting corporate interests on board—in a serious, committed way—with better environmental practices.
An Outlet For Excess Energy
Jason Lehman, IKEA’s facilities manager, says one of the biggest issues with the building’s “very big, very expensive solar array” is that he can’t run it optimally.
The array has the capacity to produce 838 kilowatts of direct current energy. If it’s operating at its peak it pumps out more power than the building needs. But Nova Scotia’s net metering rules stop IKEA from feeding any extra back into the grid.
That means Lehman must force his system to restrict how much energy comes in.
“Imagine you’re standing outside your house and you’ve got a garden hose hooked up. You’ve got the water flowing and it’s just a little too much, so you start to kink the hose test to restrict flow,” he explains. “That works but it’s extra wear and tear on the hose—and eventually it’s going to break or leak. That’s exactly what’s happening with my system.”
That’s where ROCarbon and students from the NSCC come in.
NSCC has already calculated that IKEA‘s solar array produces more energy than it can use 95 days out of the year. ROCarbon’s software collects key data about how the solar array is working, which NSCC students can then study to find ways to better use that excess energy.
McCarthy says that could mean figuring out the most viable type of battery storage for the system, or whether batteries even make sense at all. It might even mean developing ways to use that energy to power electric vehicles.
“It’s about taking the data and figuring out what options they have, presenting those options, and then them using that to decide, okay, what is best for us? Do we want something big and cool to put us on the map? Do we want something that gives us the highest return on investment? Do we want something that drives the most carbon offset? They can make that choice and it’s all backed up with this data,” she explains.
Lehman says he’s excited about the potential ideas the students are bringing him but that he’s also happy to facilitate useful, real-world training for them.
IKEA knows how to sell furniture, he says, but the company still wants to contribute to research and set a clean-energy example. This project allows him to get out the way and help more experienced people do that.
Are Profit Margins The Key To Better Environmental Practices?
McCarthy hopes her work with ROCarbon, and the work NSCC students are doing, can help pave the way for more large companies to commit seriously to better environmental practices.
She believes one of the only ways that will happen is if large companies see that better environmental practices can boost their bottom line.
“People love whales, people love hugging the trees, but the harsh reality is… a lot of businesses don’t have 250,000 bucks to shell out to do the so-called the right thing,” she says.
However, she says generous tax breaks from the federal government mean installing clean technology like solar arrays is “very lucrative right now.”
In many cases, she says, companies can recoup their capital costs within a year. And that makes the technology much more attractive to institutions that put so much emphasis on profit.
“Price drives absolutely everything and right now the price is very good,” she says. “The time is now. We’re about to see a solar revolution.”
“We want to help people profit off of this revolution and this transition to a low carbon economy. All the research is out there, the roadmaps are there. So it’s just a matter of executing and doing it.”
While Lehman isn’t necessarily gearing up for a solar revolution, he does believe companies must consider how their environmental footprint affects their profit margins.
He says he sees lots of large companies like IKEA setting ambitious climate targets for the next decade or so. He believes part of that is the kind of corporate social responsibility that first drove IKEA to install its solar array.
But that’s not the only reason.
He thinks companies are also waking up to the fact that more people are making spending decisions based on how comfortable they are with a company’s environmental impact.
“Accountability is becoming something that we need to measure—something that’s going to drive buyers to our doors,” he says.
While he’s not sure it will ever be quite as simple as a one-to-one return on investment on a solar array, he does think the profit incentives for good environmental practices will onyl get stronger.
“What I think we will see is: I’m going to invest in solar panels for my stores across Canada to hit a clean energy or carbon goal. That way we can promote the fact that we’re using green energy in our operations across Canada to put ourselves more top of mind for our customers,” he says.
Trevor Nichols is a staff writer with Huddle in Halifax. Send him an e-mail with your story suggestions: [email protected].