Last week, Kimberley voters approved the sale of the SunMine to Teck by a wide margin (2126 yes votes and 572 no).
According to City CAO Scott Sommerville the next step is working with Teck on a definitive sales agreement.
Sommerville will be meeting with a representative from Teck on Monday morning at the SunMine.
“ We hope to get a deal done before the year-end, but springtime is more likely and realistic,” he said. “There are multiple agreements that need to be reassigned from the City to Teck, so mostly legal work ahead.”
READ: City to sell SunMine to Teck
Since the project was completed in 2015 SunMine and its partners have been honoured with:
• Community of the Year Award by Clean Energy BC, 2015
• Union of BC Municipalities, 2015 Community Excellence Award for Leadership and Innovation in Green Initiatives
• The 2016 Sustainability Award from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC
• The 2016 National Award for an Engineering Project or Achievement from Engineers Canada.
• 2016 Collaboration Award in this year’s Community Energy Association Climate & Energy Action Awards
• 2017 Clean 50 award for outstanding contributions to clean capitalism
• 2017 Brownie Award for Best Large-Scale Project
SunMine has 4,032 solar-cell modules, mounted on 96 solar trackers which follow the sun’s movement, maximizing solar exposure. It is BC’s largest solar project, Canada’s largest solar tracking facility, and the first solar project in B.C. to sell power to the BC Hydro grid.
The project has always been supported by Teck, and it was decided last summer that having Teck over the expansion to 2MW would be the best course of action, as the City could not afford to do so.