Halton Solar Fair, Saturday October 4

Copied from an email sent by the Halton Environmental Network, which is organizing home owners who want to install solar systems (solar thermal or photovoltaic) in Halton region (Oakville, Burlington, Milton, Georgetown areas). (We hope to install a solar water heater at our house.)

The Halton Environmental Network (HEN) is organizing a Solar Fair for Saturday, October 4 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. The Fair will be held in the Auditorium of the Halton Regional Centre, 1151 Bronte Road (Regional Road 25) in Oakville, just north of the QEW.

Eight solar vendors will be displaying and discussing their solar water heating and photovoltaic (solar electricity) systems.

The first series of public meetings for the HRSP is currently underway, with meetings last week in Oakville and Burlington drawing a total of 175 attendees. Upcoming meetings are scheduled for Wed. Oct. 1 at the Milton Sports Centre and Thurs. Oct. 2 at the Georgetown Cultural Centre. Both meetings start at 7:00 p.m.

The Solar Fair on Oct. 4 is a follow-up to the evening meeting series, but people who could not attend the evening meetings are welcome to attend.

An information session will run from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., including an overview of solar power and the HRSP. Guest speaker will be Ken Traynor of the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-op (TREC). Traynor was a key organizer of the West Toronto Initiative for Solar Energy (WISE), which saw 86 solar systems installed in one ward of Toronto in 2007.

The opportunity to hear from vendors will come from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Attendees will be able to move around the room from vendor presentation to vendor presentation every 10 minutes. There will be time for questions.

Energy advisors will also be on hand at the Solar Fair to enable people to sign up for home energy audits. An audit by a qualified energy advisor is required in order to receive more than $1,000 in rebates for solar hot water systems.

For more information on the Halton Residential Solar Project, visit halton.ourpower.ca.