New solar farm opens to power Edmonton water treatment plant

EPCOR officially opened the kīsikāw pīsim solar farm on Tuesday. The farm will generate up to half of the energy required to power the E. L. Smith Water Treatment plant, which supplies 65 per cent of the water used by Edmonton and surrounding communities.

The farm contains 30,350 solar panels, and will generate enough power to cut 14,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, EPCOR said.

“The kīsikāw pīsim solar farm is an example of the work we’re doing to support a greener future today,” said Stuart Lee, EPCOR president and CEO in a written release. “This project will make a significant and lasting impact in environmental sustainability by allowing us to produce clean water using clean energy. It will make the water treatment plant more self-sufficient and climate resilient; and EPCOR would like to thank all our partners who brought their leadership and vision to help make it a reality.”

Earlier this year, the farm was gifted its Indigenous name by Enoc Cree Nation.

kīsikāw pīsim (KEY-see-gaw PEE-sim) means “daylight sun” and and is represented in Cree syllabics as ᑮᓯᑳᐤ ᐲᓯᒼ .

Edmontonians have been paying an additional 10 to 15 cents per month on their bill since 2017 to fund the new solar farm.