Former B.C. mine now harvests sun’s rays

KIMBERLEY, B.C. – With its tumbling creeks and fast-moving rivers, British Columbia gets 97 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources, mostly hydro. Now, a new 1.05-megawatt solar installation at Kimberley has diversified the province’s energy portfolio.

The city of 7,600 people is located in the foothills of the Purcell Mountains, about a 90 minutes from the U.S. border and two hours from Alberta. It now has a tourism-based economy, based partly on a local ski area but also proximity to Fernie, an hour and a half away. It used to be a mining town, as the Sullivan Mine had been the largest lead-zinc producer in the world before closing in 2001.

Some 4,032 solar modules have now been installed on that former mining property. The panels are attached to trackers, which follow the daily progress of the sun, the first large-scale solar facility in Canada to use the technology. The German-engineered trackers allow the panels to generate as much as 38 percent more energy than fixed panels.

Tech Resources Ltd., the owner of the mining property, provided the land as well as $2 million. By a wide margin, Kimberley voters in 2011 approved borrowing $2 million to be used for the solar installation, called the SunMine.

Also crucial was a commitment from B.C. Hydro, the province’s electrical provider. The agency committed to paying 11 cents a kilowatt-hour for the next 25 years, substantially more than the cost of hydro, says Kevin Wilson, Kimberley’s economic development officer.

Wilson says the solar helps diversify British Columbia’s power supply. That, in turn, makes the power supply more resilient. Solar will, for example, continue even in times of drought.

Kimberley’s solar project may also be a catalyst for other solar projects, perhaps in neighboring Alberta, he says.  According to Alberta Energy, 90 percent of the province’s electrical production in 2013 came from either coal or natural gas.

Park City has only one!

Well, actually, two

PARK CITY, Utah – Vail Resorts has unveiled its new marketing tagline for its combined operations of Park City Mountain Resort and The Canyons: “There is only one.”

Actually, in Park City, there are still two: the new combined resort and Deer Valley. Coleen Reardon, director of marketing for Deer Valley Resort, tells The Park Record that her resort did too good a job of branding its individual identity. People thought Deer Valley was somewhere else along the Wasatch Range.

She likes what Vail has done, however. “I thought it was a really smart marketing move,” she says. “It speaks to the resort on two fronts: there’s only one biggest (resort) in the U.S. and also they are combining two resorts, so now there is only one. It makes great sense to me.”

When stealing pot, it’s best to wear a mask

ASPEN, Colo. – If you should plan to rob a cannabis store in Colorado, you should remember that state regulators require top-shelf security systems.

Hide your face. Don’t speak. Be quick.

But then, if you’re desperate, you may forget all this. A robber at a cannabis store in Aspen last week was both contrite and admittedly desperate. He arrived at the Stash with a hammer and a trash bag and, after other customers had left, entered the back room. There, he emptied several jars, with an estimated retail value of $11,000, into his getaway bag before he got away.

Garrett Patrick, owner of the Stash, told the Aspen Daily News that his unwelcome visitor was apologetic but insistent. “Sorry, I apologize about this, but I’m desperate right now,” he remembers the young man saying.

Store employees said they recognized the man. Police got in touch with his family, in the hope that the man could be persuaded to turn himself in before worse trouble ensued. That worse trouble almost occurred in St. Louis, where the relative youngster led police on a 100 mph chase before finally submitting.

As for the cannabis, it’s now down the tube, at least as for retail value. It’s considered possibly contaminated.

The store owner credited his employees with handling the situation well. They’re instructed not to resist. But he also noted that the store’s high-definition cameras provide better definition than his own TV.

C.B. debates micro-lots for affordable housing

CRESTED BUTTE – The average home size in the United States continues to increase. In 1983, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, new homes were an average 1,725 square feet. By 2013, the average had increased to 2,679 square feet.

At least in regards to its laboring class, Crested Butte seems to be going in the other direction. The town has six so-called micro-lots that it intends to develop for affordable housing. Town regulations are being revised to allow seven, instead of six, single-family homes. The homes could range in size from 400 to 1,250 square feet.

Jim Schmidt, who lives in affordable housing, thinks the town should build more duplexes. They are cheaper to build and less expensive to heat, he said at a recent meeting covered by the Crested Butte News. A 400-square-foot home is no bigger than a garage, he added.

– Allen Best

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