A group of UCalgary engineering students have projected that the Calgary Stampede could save up to 33 per cent of their electrical use yearly through solar power.
The feasibility study was conducted by the students as part of their undergraduate capstone class, after an industry prompt from the Stampede to see how the barns could be utilized more sustainably.
“Essentially, what they wanted us to do is perform a structural analysis on these barns to see, one, can they withstand the load of solar panels being installed on top, and then two, can these solar panels produce enough electricity to power the park year round,” said Jason Yoo, one of the capstone project participants.
“In terms of power, we can generate about 33 per cent of the total park’s demand year-round, which is a pretty substantial amount. The total year-round demand we found in 2023 was about 17.7 million kilowatt-hours—30 per cent is about 5.9 million, and that’s the amount we can generate with the system.”
He said that one of the big questions about those barns was whether their age having been built in the 1930s, and the damage suffered during the 2013 floods, would affect whether they could carry the load of solar panels.
“We found out that, yes, they can actually, they can hold them very well. There was very little concern for the displacement of the roof from here on,” Yoo said.
Solar safe for year-round use on the century-old building
Other aspects examined in the project included the disruptions to the operations of the barns during the 10-day festival.
“One of the regulations and concerns was not that the animals are in there, because it is safe, it’s the fact that the fireworks are happening right there, and it could cause a short on the panels,” said Christoph Katsaounis.
He said that what they found was that there was a potential to have an operating system year-round, and that sufficient safeguards could be put in place even with the fireworks to make a solar system safe for use.
Ansh Saini said that in their discussions with the Stampede, even being able to reduce electrical usage from the grid by 10 per cent was seen favourably by the organization.
“It’s not just an economic project. It’s also a sustainability project at the same time, making sure that we move towards net carbon emissions for Canada, and Alberta itself. So, I think it’s definitely something that they will try to pursue in the future.”
For her part, Kori Stosky, the Stampede’s sustainability specialist, said that while the feasibility study was limited to just being a capstone project, it was important to support students to think about real world projects.
“We definitely put a theoretical project forward to them, which was solar on the barns, and I think it was awesome. They worked amazing as a team with lots of bright young minds. They were able to analyze it and really think about it from like a real world perspective,” Stosky said.
“When they presented it to myself, they were professional. I was just really overall impressed, especially considering that it’s an undergraduate group.”
She said that speaking as a recent master’s graduate from the University of Calgary, it was important to have that industry partnership to work on a real-world project that would extend student learning.
Although the capstone was a theoretical exercise, she said, it does tie into the conversations the Stampede is having on sustainability.
“We wouldn’t use this information to dive into like an infrastructure project, but these are really important conversations to have a larger picture. Being able to just get bright young minds to kind of tackle something like this is exciting,” Stosky said.
