There’s nothing better than a local business story. The founders of Terratek are a pair from Courtenay, BC named Scott and Landon. In 2004, Terratek was born out of the need for solar installers in the Comox Valley. Since then, Terratek has completed hundreds of residential jobs, over 30 schools and commercial projects like greening up Richmond’s Mini Dealership. They now serve the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.
If you think about it, solar power is very simple. The energy of the sun is captured by cleverly placed solar panels, and that energy is converted into usable household electricity. The trick is getting the wiring and conversion set up so that you get as much power out of the whole system.
The Lower Mainland isn’t sun bathed Mexico, that’s for sure. But solar is still very effective here. According to Emily Kendy at Terratek, “Germany is the leading country for solar in the world and actually gets less sunshine than we do. They were powering 50% of their country with solar as of July.”
In the case of Terratek, most household solar units power domestic hot water. Your hot water tank is one of the biggest energy suckers in your home, using on average 35% of your home’s energy consumption. With a solar hot water system, you can offset the cost of hot water as much as 50-60% overall, including 40% in winter and 100% in the summer…
Read the full article on the Green Grads website here.