Original Coverage & Source Attribution: pentictonwesternnews.com
Village of Keremeos lighting up with solar power installation
Published 2:28 pm Thursday, October 8, 2026
The first phase of a split solar power project is in the middle of installation at the Village of Keremeos’s municipal building as of Thursday, Oct. 8.
The project will see 32 panels installed next to the office parking lot, as part of a 30-kilowatt full project.
The second section of 16 panels will be installed across the street at the village’s public works yard.
The project was originally approved by council in May 2026, all 48 panels would have been installed outside the municipal building.
However, FortisBC refused to approve the size and configuration of the project, resulting in it being split in two, and a $5,000 increase in the project’s expected cost.
Even with raising the costs to a total $69,000, it remains within the $75,000 in Local Government Climate Action Program grant funding that the village had available to use.
The original plan was expected to provide savings to the village over the next 25 years of more than $130,000. However, that was based in part on maintenance costs for a single location.
In June, council heard that a separate, 40-kW solar project came online at the wastewater treatment plant. It was expected to provide savings in electricity costs and an estimated 0.3 to 0.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
