Chairperson: Ellen Crowley

 

 

O’Canada led by Sue Ueffing

 

Prayer led by Greg Trefry

 

Guests: Matthew Connolly (John Lohr), Grace Brushett (Deborah Conner)

 

Bill: is happy for a great work party at the Khatib’s with its ups (tearing off the old deck) and its downs (may be a problem with the water line), but it was a lot of fun and a delicious lunch!

Craig: is sad that the road race he regularly participates in has been cancelled this year due to lack of registration.

Rick: is happy that he got to give away his younger daughter at her recent wedding! He was very happy that everything went well and the reception was at the Old Orchard Inn and they did a great job!

Pierre: is happy that it’s his first official day of retirement “vacation”. Pierre wanted to thank Phyllis and Wally for hosting the get together at their cottage over the long weekend. Finally, he was happy to be off to visit his kids and grandkids out West.

Sue: is happy to thank Wally and Phyllis for hosting folks at their cottage… and help out Pierre with his Happy Dollar debt! ;)

Ellen: is happy because she had a lot of fun in Kelowna and Santa Fe.

 

Phil thanked Wally and Phyllis, welcomed the guests and guest speaker, and let the club know that everyone should try to have their dues all payed before the end of August so that we can have it all wrapped up. He also explained that Valley Faces is doing well but that we should continue to wrap up the project.

Phil also reminded the club that Oakdene Days was rescheduled to August 24^th from 11-1pm. We’ll need volunteers and Phil and Bill will be coordinating this year. Lastly, Phil said that over the next little bit he’ll be focused on cleaning up everyone’s committee commitments, finding new chairs for some of the committees and making sure members are on the committees they want to be on.

 

 

 

Initially Andrew spoke about the impact the climate change is going to have on the next generation, and how this is a real issue especially for this younger generation.

He went on to explain his business, Skylit Solar, who provide solar solutions to both residential and commercial customers. They provide financing to make renewable energy affordable. Skylit does grid tied solar electric systems either with battery bank backup or without. (This is where the panel solar panels feed into an electricity inverter which then feeds the electricity back into the grid).

Andrew then explained how costs have changed over and the costs for solar solutions and batteries were both down considerably. The addition of batteries to the system means that in a power outage you would still be able to run lights, appliances, etc. The pickup of the battery bank is so quick during a power outage that you don’t even have to reset your VCR - thanks Rod for that relevant example! ;)

Andrew went on to explain the Solar Homes rebate (through Efficiency NS) and the Solar Scotia Energy CEDIF (they are raising money through individuals financing solar projects as an investment). His company has grown from three when they began in October of 2016 to 16 (plus two part time) this year.

Finally, Andrew answered some questions from Rotarians including the payback time of a typical project (approximately 12 years), his opinion on Tesla’s solar shingles and solar wall (look nice but aren’t cost effective, solar wall NS Power is testing), and the winter performance and maintenance (in winter the performance declines 75%, but the maintenance is easy as snow usually melts of quickly and there is no installation issues on steel roofs). Andrew then answered the question of the cost of an average solar project by saying it would be approximately $25,000 to $30,000 before the rebates.

Pierre then thanked Andrew for his presentation and spoke about how happy he is with his own solar system.

 

Pierre won the draw for Chase the Ace but too bad! It’s a ROLL-OVER! (Don’t feel bad, Pierre got a cool $13 instead!)