Article content

Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison counts himself as a strong supporter of solar power.

In an interview after a meeting of the city’s environment, utilities and corporate services committee on Tuesday, Atchison said he wanted to install solar power and heating for his home, but the contractor was not prepared to perform the work.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Mayor voices support for solar power Back to video

However, he said he made sure the home site and roofline are suitable so that a conversion to solar power will be possible someday.

“I really believe in solar,” he said. “It’s very passive.”

Atchison said the city’s power utility, Saskatoon Light & Power, needs to start planning for an increase in the number of people installing solar power systems on their homes.

The change will have implications for the power utility, in terms of whether it could add to overall power capacity and mean more money for the city, he added.

“I think solar is the way of the future,” Atchison said. During the meeting, he voiced his support for solar energy in response to a presentation from the city’s environmental advisory committee.

Brian Sawatzky said the committee plans to lobby for the revival of a solar city initiative that was developed by the city in 2014, but did not receive funding in the 2015 budget.

The solar city initiative called for about $200,000 in 2015 to retrofit some municipal buildings and provide incentives for homeowners to convert to solar power.

Saskatoon was regarded as an ideal community for the pilot projects due to its abundance of year-round sunshine.

ptank@postmedia.com

twitter.com/thinktankSK