A Rewarding Experience
May 18, 2023
As a member of GreenUp Peterborough Economy, we were both humbled and honoured when we were called up to accept a Sustainability Award at the GreenUp annual awards ceremony in Peterborough earlier this month. We were also excited to see six other companies awarded for their sustainability projects, as well as the mayor of Peterborough – Jeff Leal, discussing his plans for a greener Peterborough. Collective minds and efforts can make a difference where we work and live!
In summary of our Sun Dog project, this has been a very rewarding experience for our family in more ways than one. Our son Jakob reminds us of a quote by Horace Mann – known as the ‘father of American education’…. “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” “Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves.”
With that in mind, we look forward to tomorrow, and finding more ways to help make our community and planet a better place to live.
Lake Edge Cottages Global News Clip
As a final chapter to our Sun Dog blog, it would be amiss without acknowledging our family’s sincere gratitude to our business and tourism partners who made our transition from hydro to solar energy, a very successful and rewarding journey for all who were involved. To show our appreciation we hosted everyone for a ribbon cutting ceremony, tour, and lunch at our property in Lakefield. Attendees included: ⦁ Martina Chait-Hartwig, Township Clerk – Representing our local Mayor Heather Watson, Township of Douro Dummer ⦁ Joe Rees, Director of Tourism for Peterborough and the Kawartha’s Economic Development ⦁ Tegan Moss, Executive Director, GreenUp, and Jackie Donaldson, Lili Paradi – GreenUp Economy Peterborough ⦁ Paulette Prentice, Director General FedDev Southern Ontario – Representing the Honourable MP Filomena Tassi ⦁ JP Pawliu and Simon Boone – owners of Generation Solar ⦁ Rob Irwin and Mark Davidson- Whippletree ⦁ Jessica Gordon – Peterborough Chamber of Commerce ⦁ Steve, Anne and Jakob Wildfong – Owners, Lake Edge Cottages ⦁ Long-term guests of Lake Edge Cottages The media coverage included: Global News, and a variety of others: Global News video The Peterborough Examiner Kawartha Now PTBO Canada The Wolf News Energy Portal As of this writing, we are well on track to meet the solar generation targets that will give back 110% of our traditional hydro annual burn rate. This brings to mind other, less obvious benefits, such as: helping Hydro One and our community, by giving them access to our excess energy that we produce during the warmer seasons, which reduces stress from the grid. The amount of electricity that Hydro borrows from us is measured ongoing and reported on our monthly statement as a month/month accumulated credit owing back to us. This accumulated ‘tax-free’ credit is then used by us during the cooler months of year when we produce less (due to less daylight hours, snow on the roof, cloudy days, etc.) Sun-Dog also provides a clean energy foundation to build upon as we go forward – such as EV charging, and using more electric heat over gas during the cooler months, purchasing an electric vehicle. And, our positive client feedback so far has been phenomenal, as they feel good knowing that we’re investing progressively in the future of Lake Edge Cottages and the future generations to follow. Overall, this project has been a very positive experience for my family. Our children (now adults), muse at seeing their parents in the news and on tv, while making a positive impact within our local tourism, business and client communities. Looking back, I would do it all again. As I mentioned to the media: This isn’t just about preserving our past, but also giving hope to our younger generations.
It seemed like a long winter, as the new walkthrough and garage doors for Sun Dog didn’t arrive until early April. However, solar testing continued throughout the winter. Our solar array officially went live on January 21st, 2023, and passed final performance testing on April 9th. (Yeah!) With shorter winter days and snow-covered roofs, harvesting solar energy was far more challenging in the winter months, as expected. Today, we are collecting more solar energy than we are using at Lake Edge, as the excess is passed back to the hydro grid for others to use. This excess production will be credited back on our future Hydro One invoices when needed (i.e., next fall/winter). It’s raining today, so our utilization is low. However, we still continue to harvest solar energy. This web-based monitoring tool will also help us understand the ongoing beneficial impact on our environment, and if there are any production issues with the solar panels themselves, so that we can remediate if necessary. In summary, we’re now living off the land with healthy well water and natural sunshine, which is powering every electrical outlet on the property, while also giving back to the environment. With this foundation in place, we will continue to build towards our green objective of becoming a net zero business/resort. And remember, our EV charger, which was recently added, is currently complementary for all Lake Edge overnight clients to use.
