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A northern Alberta county hopes to inspire other municipalities to look at producing their own renewable power after it put solar panels on a local fire hall.

Northern Sunrise County, about 500 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, installed 88 panels that went into service last week on the roof of the St. Isidore/Three Creeks fire station, Reeve Garrett Tomlinson said Saturday.

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Officials in the 1,933-person county can only find a system of similar size on one other station in Canada, in Qualicum Beach, B.C., Tomlinson said.

“We always pride ourselves on being leaders in every field we have access to,” he said.

“For us, it was another way to get people locally thinking about solar, and prove the technology in a rural area … The numbers make sense and you can get your money back at the end of the day.”

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The 22.5 kilowatt project, which took almost a year to complete, should generate almost 30,000 kilowatt hours and prevent 17,698 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equivalent to taking four cars off the road.